


The Provisional Laws of Acquired Behavior or Learning

by Kizuniya



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comic), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: ...I'm not taging every expy, Also I Have Grammerly Now, Antoine D'Coolette... has not yet appeared, Be Careful What You Wish For, Butterfly Effect, Draco Malfoy as Miles "Tails" Prower, Earth slowly warping into a copy of Archie Mobius, Gen, Harry Potter Changes His Name, Harry Potter Characters are expy's of Sonic Archie Comics Characters, Harry Potter as Sonic the Hedgehog, How do I tag this mess?, It gets better before it gets worse, Neville Longbottom as Rotor Walrus, Not Beta Read, Original Character? Who's that?, Padma Patil as Bunnie Rabbot, Susan Bones as Sally Acorn, Wish Magic, all of them - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-12 07:47:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 31
Words: 84,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28631979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kizuniya/pseuds/Kizuniya
Summary: "Accidentally" lost by the Dursley's in London, toddler Harry Potter seeks sanctuary in a movie theatre and isn't found until a week later.Alas, the influence of "modern" media and accidental wish magic have never meshed well and in a world where the Blue Blur's only animated movie was released years early to cinema's instead of straight to video, the results are chaotic.Reposted from FF.Net account 'Wrath Of The Heavens', expect all future updates to come from this account because FF.net is trash and won't let me post anything.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 10
Collections: Rebuilding The Cosmic Interstate





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling, if I did I'd gut the current Sonic fandom and only allow literate people to contribute cutting the fandom back by 90% and improving the quality by the same percentage.
> 
> The second I saw the name of the person who wrote that thesis I knew I found my story's name.

5-year-old Harry Potter contemplated his recent life choices as he nibbled on the delicious hot dog and slurped the fizzy juice under the front seat of the cinema as he tried to understand the stuff on the big screen, briefly he thought that the images looked like the ones shown on the box that uncle said he wasn't allowed to look at. But he continued to munch on the hotdog, or was it a chilidog?

Well anyway, he was starting to understand, it even played when he went to sleep! And the seats were soft enough to sleep on, unlike his cupboard.  
Oh its starting again!

*Beeb boop boop beeb boop boop*

…the screen pans from the monitor screens into darkness

*Beeb boop boop beeb boop boop*

…past a wall of dark glowing circuitry

*Beeb boop boop beeb boop boop*

*Electrical pulse sound*

…illuminating the form of a blue metal robot before fading out

*Beeb boop boop beeb boop boop*

*Electrical pulse sound*

…a closeup of wicked metal claws

*Beeb boop boop beeb boop boop*

…closer still

*Electrical pulse sound*

…red shoes with white stripes

*Beeb boop boop beeb boop boop*

…closer still

*Electrical pulse sound*

…a yellow power outlet on the robot

*Beeb boop boop beeb boop boop*

*Electrical pulse sound*

… an egg-shaped man is shown in front of the robot begins speaking…  
"Finally the only thing left to be done is to capture the essential life data from your counterpart, then you will be complete my Hyper Metal Sonic.  
"When you awaken…"

The robots head is shown-

*Menacing growl*

"KILL HIM!"

-and its eyes glow red!

"Mwhhahahahahahahahaha!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Little Harry is found and returned to Privet Drive and nosey neighbors have occasionally been known to have brains.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

Harry effortlessly endured the searching gazes of the few people outside as he ran ahead of Petunia and Dudley on the 15-minute walk back from school.  
Life had improved for young Harry ever since the incident when 5-year-old Harry had been misplaced in a shopping center in London by his relatives and wandered into a cinema where he had proceeded to go unnoticed for a week and survived off of discarded popcorn, chilidogs and drinks.  
Harry had only been noticed when the staff had gone to change the movie's screen curtains as part of weekly maintenance, at that point he had watched or slept through over 100 showings of the movie Sonic the Hedgehog and could recite it by heart.  
The Dursley's had faced serious censure from the neighborhood for not reporting Harry a five-year-old tot missing in London, everyone suspected that the only reason that they weren't on trial was because of some serious bribes on Vernon's part.  
Helpless to do anything and with the Dursleys seemingly untouchable by the law the residents of Privet Drive had started to keep an eye on the Dursleys for even the slightest misdemeanor this included unexplained bruises and skittish behavior of the nephew, not that Vernon or Petunia noticed.  
At school children were asked about everything that happened regarding Harry Potter and thus the social circle of Privet Drive discovered what a thug young Dudley was becoming.

What happened next started with the best of intentions but did not quite end that way, young children were told by their parents that behaving like Dudley Dursley was 'very wrong' and thus began to avoid him like he had the plague.  
Piers Polkiss, seen as Dudley's enabler was removed to another primary school by his scandalized parents who hoped the boy would grow into a better person away from such corrosive influence.  
Others were moved to different classes or strictly disciplined.  
This left Dudley suddenly quite friendless though it took him a while to notice it himself, primarily when his former friends weren't there to stop him from beating his cousin viciously into unconsciousness unknowingly in full view of the teacher's lounge.  
Unable to completely cover up Dudley's actions the two were moved to different classes, where without Dudley to use as a measuring stick, Harry, unknowingly to himself became top of the class, Meanwhile Dudley's grades took a sharp, sharp downturn.  
It became a bitter joke of recriminations amongst staff that Dudley Dursley had fooled them all by taking his cousin's homework and presenting it as his own. Attempts to get through to his parents were met with derisions and disbelief and thus nothing was done.  
Dudley Dursley was so far below his grade level it wasn't funny, it was a failure on the part of the institution that they hadn't noticed it before. The only thing to do was continue onwards and let the Dursley's maintain their illusions, not that they could break them if they tried, either way, Dudley was in for a hell of a shock if he thought he was getting into secondary school.  
They could have tried to teach him on the side but after recording his screaming tantrums about already knowing how to read and do numbers and then trying to hit the  
teachers they backed off, no one wanted to be treated so foully for trying to help. (It was 1985 what did you expect?)

Harry didn't make friends though not through lack of trying on the other children's part, many had been encouraged to try to get to know the green-eyed waif and he avoided them like the wind.  
In the face of these half-hearted attempts at friendship, Harry chose to become a distant loner and had a penchant for running like the crow flies, fast.  
A hobby of his or more of a routine was helping cats out of trees, the neighbors who noted this also noted that most of the cats belonged to a friendly old cat lady nearly next door to the boy.  
Thus Mrs. Figg was informed, read manipulated, that the boy next door was repeatedly saving her cats therefore by the laws of decently she should reward him.  
The fact that the neighbor in question offered to give her her sons old collection of comic books as Harry's reward was waved away as a convenient age-appropriate gift and a waste not want not mentality.  
So between school and mindless indoor chores, young Harry spent the time at Mrs. Figg, reading her "grandsons" unusually large comic collection in return for saving her cats, often.  
The Dursley's had no reason to complain as Harry had stopped telling them things and thinking him bored out of his mind with the old cat lady but too dumb to refuse her offer they didn't see any reason to intervene.  
Really Harry was counting down the days until he could leave.  
Harry loved reading the comics, an extension of the movie that had devoured his thoughts since he was younger, watching that movie had been, Harry was certain, the greatest week of his life.  
Coming back to the Dursley's had been a miserable affair, the policeman had been nice but had laughed when Harry said he wanted to go back to the cinema.  
Learning that the toddler had been in the cinema for a solid week and his relatives hadn't reported him missing had really left the police officer incensed, he'd even asked his counterpart in Surrey to throw the book at the Dursley's.  
That police officer never knew how exactly 5 minutes after that conversation said counterpart suffered a sudden nasty migraine and promptly decided that the Dursley's were simply careless and needed a second chance.  
Vernon simply counted his blessings and put it up to the government going to the dogs and dragging the police competency down with them, it wasn't.

Things didn't really kick into high gear until Harry turned 7, a odd if somewhat dangerous thing happened that day when a science experiment for school in house number 8 exploded, blowing out a window, drenching the passing Harry in an unknown chemical bleach.  
The man had been most apologetic and after washing Harry clean of the bleach mixture with a fire hose had rushed the child to the hospital unsure of the possible toxicity of his daughters failed experiment, though how she had managed to make a paper mache volcano explode with that much force was unclear. Let alone how a simple formula of vinegar, red food coloring and baking soda had come to contain bleach in the first place.  
It was a few days after the explosion that the effects were made clear.  
Harry's hair started growing in blue, all of it.  
The doctors at the hospital studied the odd bleach mix and were quite baffled, Harry thought they were being quite silly after all that was what bleach did, it changed your hair color like what happened to Sally Acorn in the Sonic comics, he'd been expecting it to happen actually.  
But later after his release from the hospital, with no small amount of grumbling on the Dursley's part, he wondered that if his hair was growing in blue did that mean he could run really super fast like his hero too?  
…A bit of study…  
…huh…  
Apparently yes.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loneliness sets in with the Fastest-Boy-Who-Lived, subconscious Wish Magic happens, causing the Unspeakables to have a really bad day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

Harry James Potter could now run super fast like Sonic the Hedgehog but like his idol had no desire to be bothered about it, it was just something he could do.  
But still, he wondered what it would be like to have friends like in the comics he read, what was it the teacher a school called them?  
Character foils, Archetypes, or something like that?  
And they'd go on adventures and save the world, though what this world needed saving from he really had no clue.  
Even if something did happen there was no guarantee that he would be involved and even if he was, would he be obligated to do anything?  
'Forget about it, you created that stupid contraption in the first place why should I have to go about cleaning up your messes!'  
Harry tied his best to ignore the loneliness gnawing in his heart, It was not like there were any people like him in this world anyway.

Far away in a Secret Underground Research Laboratory, an alarm blared.

"We have a problem" Stated a cloaked figure.  
"A serious problem" affirmed the second identical figure.  
"Wish magic!" A third identical cloaked figure threw up its arms in frustration and began to rant "I hate wish magic, it all starts out so innocently then some idiot magic child takes War of the Worlds for truth and everyone's suddenly fighting aliens."  
"There goes the Statute of Secrecy again" one figure muttered to a smattering of groans.  
"Any changes to our reality have anchored themselves already, damn it." The first figure affirmed grimly.  
"More than half the prophesy spheres in the department have shattered into pieces, new ones are springing up like grass." Another unknown reported.  
"We're all going to die" another one uttered hopelessly only to be smacked on the back of the head by the second figure.  
"Man up Owl, you're an Unspeakable now, not a rookie." The Unspeakable known only as Owl merely rubbed his aching head through the hooded cowl.  
"What do we do now boss?"  
All gazes turned to the Head Unspeakable.  
"Prepare, I want those Norwegian grain hoarders jealous of our paranoia"  
"Prepare for what, sir" queried Owl still rubbing his aching head.  
"Nothing less than Armageddon, there is a reason mind-reading isn't used on children, a child's mind is a dangerous place, more so when imposed on reality."

Back in Surrey Harry resumed his browsing of comics in Mrs. Figg's house.  
If he, Harry were theoretically a hero, what sort of friends would he want to have?  
The determined hammer happy Amy-Rose with a heart of gold?  
The lone echidna Knuckles with duty so heavy nations would break beneath its weight?  
Rotor the technical-minded walrus with the ingenuity to design almost anything?  
Antoine D'Coolette son of a soldier trying desperately to fill his father's shoes?  
Maybe Tails, the child with a heart of gold, one of the main reasons Sonic kept fighting?  
Bunnie Rabbot who had still moved forward even after losing her arm and legs in a traumatizing way?  
And to be friends with royalty like Princess Sally Acorn, albeit temporarily deposed sounded like a real adventure and the others were just as interesting!  
Shadow the Hedgehog, with his chequered history that had checkers.  
Rouge the Bat a skilled and cunning jewel thief.  
E-123 Omega, defying his "Nature" to fight against his creator.  
Vector the Crocodile, a big bite with a bigger heart.  
Charmy the Bee, goofball detective or Prince of the Golden Hive Colony?  
Espio the Chameleon, a stealthy invisible shuriken slinging ninja.  
And there were so many more too, too many to name, that Harry really couldn't decide.  
"Even just the one would be nice.." the boy mused aloud, someone to come back to or travel with.  
Running didn't stop the effects of isolation, it only enhanced it.  
Harry's expression hardened an unusual expression on the usually whimsical child's face "Right that's it! Forget this place I'm going traveling!"

Far away in a Secret Underground Research Laboratory, something exploded, again, for the tenth time.  
"DAMN IT!"


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It had been some years since Harry gained his speed and slowly he comes to grips with it when he stumbles upon something new.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling

Years Later…  
In a London back alley bar, a female newsreader on the television narrated the day's news. "In other news media stunts in London emulating that of the recent game release of Sonic the Hedgehog are becoming increasingly more elaborate, is this a sign of a new Sonic movie in production? Our news correspondent in Tokyo talks with the Sega Sonic Team…"  
In the corner of the same bar a lanky young boy in a faded blue hoodie delicately munched a chilidog washing it down with some non-alcoholic root beer, the bartender fondly joked that the only reason the kid came to his pub was because of the root beer he had specially imported from America.  
Speaking of..  
"Yo, Maurice you want a top-up?" the old man behind the bar, who wouldn't have been out of place crawling out of someone's chimney at Christmas time when clad in red, called out in an Irish accent.  
"You know me so well, keep it coming" the boy spoke up from his chilidog, green eyes sparkling with contentment.  
"You're a good kid, Maurice."  
"You're only saying that because I help you move the kegs around"  
"And my old back appreciates the hired help, Don't forget to come by Monday. We're getting a new shipment of that Harpoon craft stuff that's all the rage lately, I'll save ya a few bottles for when yer older"  
"Thanks, old man, that's really nice of you"

In the back alley, the boy known as Maurice lowered his hoodie and yawned stretching and letting vibrant blue hair loose in the breeze then without a backward glance sprinted forward faster than the wind and just as visible.  
It had been years since Harry now going by Maurice had made the decision to go traveling, the actual traveling hadn't happened instantly though to anyone else it might have appeared that way.  
Maurice still attended school still slept over at the Dursley's but that was the extent of routine. Maurice simply picked a direction one day and ran with it only returning to the Dursleys to be seen by the neighbors on the walk to school, he grated at even that but allowed that there would be far less hassle this way and more time to run.

The name change came swiftly or rather instantly when Harry decided that 'Harry' was a particularly dull name for someone who had a superpower, coincidentally and on a totally unrelated note Dudley went through a phase of childish name calling and was surprisingly inventive for someone about as intelligent as a brick. While for Harry these insults slid off of him like water off a duck because Duddikins really had no equal as far as embarrassing nicknames went, Harry decided a name change was needed if only to remain un-associated with his relatives. It was surprisingly easy his hero's original first name was… actually quite embarrassing truthfully, but his middle name was at least bearable, Maurice.  
Harry would never admit to his dying day that his class had been reading The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett that week in English class.

Maurice had run southwest on that first Saturday, influenced perhaps by the cold weather, and ended up in Land's End, It had taken him till late Sunday night to return to Surrey to go to school on Monday and it had only taken that long because he didn't know geography well yet and spent half of Saturday and all of Sunday completely lost.  
He had diverted all of his attention towards maps and geography when in school from then on and was rather distraught to actually realize, or rather for it to actually sink in, that yes, the United Kingdom is an island and the water circled the land like that lone cornflake floating in milk that you'd rather ignore.  
It was the difference of a matter of perspective really, a normal person can walk the distance he'd run from Surrey to Land's End in days whereas it had taken him half of one day to get there.  
The average person who walked would appreciate the distance by the time it took them to cover it, Maurice who ran the entire distance at varying speeds of 50-200mph was a bit pouty at having his full pelt run cut off by the entirely-too-much-water-thank-you-very-much in his way.  
It was a bit like getting box of cookies and finding crumbs because some greedy bloke had already gobbled the lot.  
It would be a long while before Maurice would be free of the Dursley's thus able to get his own passport and travel internationally by himself, in short? Tracing a finger over the indicated island country in the big book of maps from the school's library with gritted teeth "This would have been so much easier if I had been born on the mainland" Suffice to say Maurice wanted his legroom now, please.

In the present a flash of blue wind buzzed cars and dodged around people and buses through the London boroughs with agility and lightning reaction time, leaping over low walls and the occasional animal.  
Arriving in Charing Cross without much fanfare Maurice made his way to The Phoenix Garden a nice isolated park he'd discovered a while back just about ready for a midday nap on a bench when a hiss to his right captured his attention.  
"Oi kid get out the street, you trying to get seen?"  
Maurice eyed the shady looking bald man and wordlessly pointed to himself a blue brow raised.  
"Yes you"  
Maurice shrugged to himself it's not like he couldn't just run off if he got in trouble and followed the stranger into the old fashioned tavern with the cauldron sign that… he'd never taken note of before for some odd reason…


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maurice discovers Magic and fakes it till he makes it, local magic users make assumptions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

Entering the bar Maurice dodged the incoming projectile, an owl by zooming to the other side of the bar, getting a cheer of the patrons at his speed and a good-natured chuckle out of the barman "Sorry about that kiddo, lunchtime rush and all that, best go to the alley out back" the proprietor gestured at a leaving group.  
Without a word Maurice followed them, the person who had ushered him in had already vanished in the crowd.  
So Maurice watched as the group opened a magic gateway in a walled courtyard and hurriedly followed them in, forget Phoenix Garden this might be the coolest thing he'd ever seen.

Florean Fortescue was a kindly looking middle-aged man with tawny brown hair and a bushy mustache who looked like he belonged on stage in Bollywood not manning an ice cream parlor in London. Of course, having said that Maurice didn't begrudge the man his hobbies, why would he? When the man somehow made an ice cream sundae that smelled and tasted like chilidogs? Maurice was understandably directed to the Gringotts currency exchange when he tried to pay for his food.  
A hidden society with a separate currency, what was the point of that exactly? Maurice wondered, but then again money vanishing into mysterious holes would probably be taken negatively by the government… or attributed to something like the Illuminati.  
The mural with the poetic threat on the wall was soundly ignored and Maurice entered the white marble building he'd been directed to which was flanked at the entranceway by short green goblins.

2 hours later an exhausted Maurice returned to Florean Fortescue and ordered another chilli-sun-dog-dae to sink his woes into.  
"Dare I ask what happened?" queried Florean with an amused tilt at Maurice's pouting.  
"Set up a account-" *Yawn* "-took ages-" *yawn* "-reading everything."  
Mr. Fortescue grimaced "Ah, Goblins and their paperwork, you have my sympathy. It's a good bank though"  
It has to be said that Florean made some assumptions about the odd person before him, one that he was foreign, two that he was actually older than he looked and three that Maurice was actually his name, all those assumptions were wrong.

This is the same reason Maurice Bluewind formerly Harry James Potter went completely undetected and was able to set up an adult account and a, completely legal if accidental false identity in Gringotts. Bluewind being a placeholder second name Maurice chose in a fit of pique at the unending stream of paperwork the goblin advisor had him going through.  
Maurice would only realize that he'd created a completely new identity for himself when he actually looked at the account portfolio, including identification papers and passport that the goblin had given him at the end of the legalese. Naturally had Maurice actually consciously intended to create a fake identity the goblin enchantments on the parchment would have come down on his head like a ton of bricks.

Far away in a castle in the highlands and closer still in an underground building a single name was added to two separate registries, Maurice Bluewind was "born" in Magical Britain a Muggleborn and thus entitled to a Hogwarts invite.  
In that same castle in the highlands a small gold key in a safe turned black and disintegrated, unable to make it back to Gringotts through the wards of the castle.  
Maurice would find most of this out on his return to Surrey but presently he was sulking into his ice cream and people watching.

That's when Maurice heard the magical words.

"Did you know the price on the Knight Bus has gone up? It's outrageous, we used to be able to catch the bus at lunchtime and be in Bulgaria an hour later." The shrill housewife grumbled loudly to the man beside her.  
Maurice never listened to what the male beside her said as the possibility of a dream realized years early was screaming at him "Mr. Fortescue what do you know about the Knight Bus?"  
Fortescue hemmed "You're new here, aren't you? How did that boy put it? The Knight Bus is a transport service for the stranded witch or wizard, its basically a magically expanded triple-decker purple bus, you hold your wand out over a street to flag it down like hitchhiking."  
So Maurice packed up and began to explore the Magical World he'd found himself in, first stop, a wand.

In a Secret Underground Research Laboratory...

More stuff exploded reducing grown men to tears, nuff said.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unbalanced magical economics and not reading the small print leads to Maurice getting a wand and a job.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

The thing you had to realise about the magical world was that it was expensive, hilariously so and that the currency system was deeply fundamentally broken.  
Contrary to common belief the gold galleons were not spelled to be indestructible and could be smelted down and theoretically sold in the mundane markets, or they would be were it not for several safeguards.  
Once gold was enchanted it became worthless, nobody trusted enchanted gold in the history of ever because gold held curses like nobody's business, and the slightest hint of dark magic contamination would sink into the metal and stay there, amplifying over time.  
The majority of the wizarding wars and conflicts had been started and ended for/and/or/by cursed gold.  
It was the reason the goblins ran the only wizarding bank, storing gold deep underground allowed the gold to 'cool' as it were, the isolation from all magical influence deep in the earth forcing the magic to fade, that and only goblins knew how to dig that deep.  
Wizards as a rule did not store gold in their houses long term, grey and dark wizards especially did not allow gold to sit next to their enchanted artifacts less the enchantments rub off and enter circulation.  
Fun Fact: Did you know that galleon contamination accounts for 10% of all St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries admittance in all the following categories? Artifact Accidents, Creature-Induced Injuries, Magical Bugs and Diseases, Potions and Plant Poisoning and Spell Damage.  
Contaminated galleons were The Wabbajack of the magical world.  
For this reason, the ICW had the unanimous cooperation with their non-magical counterparts (or in some cases cursed them into compliance). Gold with a magical index above 0.5 was tracked by globe-spanning wards and if it ended up in completely non-magical hands the ICW task unit came down on the perpetrator like a ton of bricks with memory charms abound.

Contaminated gold was summarily recorded, disposed and replaced by Nicolas Flamel, in association with Gringotts since 1340.

So it was with this knowledge in hand provided by the goblins that Maurice spent the next 3 months on mail delivery duty to pretty much all of London earning enough usable magical currency for magical international travel and supplies, to say Maurice knew about his Potter Trust Vault at this point in time was a barefaced lie.  
As explained by a rather recalcitrant Mr. Ollivander non-magical supplies that included things like metals, plastics and other artificial elements degraded in magical environments through prolonged exposure. Including non-magical produced paper currency and smelted coins.  
Suffice to say Maurice was firmly convinced that the person who had introduced the concept of "fetch quests" to gaming was actually a wizard.  
At the end of three months Maurice was acquainted with over 90 British and Scottish wizarding settlements scattered around the island, in order to complete those "quests" Maurice had required a wand to enter those concealed settlements, this leading to a rather strange meeting even by Maurice's standards with Britain's premiere if eccentric wandmaker.

Mr. Garric Ollivander was an old man with pale electric blue eyes and he well and truly unnerved the heck out of Maurice.  
Entering the wandmaker's shop in the first place Maurice took a good look around the place.  
The shop was full of shelves with labeled boxes some bigger than others ranging from 5 inches to over a meter and a half long, staves perhaps? Odd bright pink enchanted feathers darted between boxes acting as feather dusters.  
"Welcome to my shop young man, I'm afraid you've caught me in the midst of a bit of a spring cleaning"  
Maurice jumped in place and span on the spot startled and horribly out of joint at the unexpected jump-scare.  
"I-"  
"Have come here for a wand no doubt, I can sense that you do not currently have one on you for some reason, ah follies of youth"  
Maurice tried to calm his hammering heart. "How do I get a new one then?"  
"Not familiar with the British way of doing things are you? The wand chooses the wizard, Come then let's get you fitted with a focus, I am Garric Ollivander, wandmaker and owner of this fine establishment and you are?"  
Having finally gotten his heartbeat under control the supersonic boy responded "Maurice Bluewind"  
Ollivander clapped his hands in realization "Ah yes Florean spoke to me about you, he said you traveled a lot is that right? I may have a job for you if you're interested, phoenix feathers are getting remarkably harder to acquire… but wands first!"  
Maurice likened the following events to being caught in a whirlpool, the problem was that Maurice was ambidextrous thanks to years of parkouring around England and Scotland this meant that according to Ollivander the number of wands he could feasibly use tripled.  
Eventually, after little success Ollivander gave him an odd look "You don't have the bearing of a wand wielder you need something like an extension of yourself yet I don't think you'd appreciate a focus like a staff or blade, wait a minute" Ollivander vanished into the back room and came back with a leather bag. Placing it on the desk Ollivander removed a pair of what Maurice recognized as vambraces "Oriental war wizards wear these" Ollivander placed his wand on the top of the vambrace where it sank into the material with a water-like ripple, strapping the vambrace onto his own arm Ollivander cast a spell at a nearby cup by pointing his arm at it causing the cup to levitate.  
"Casting from a vambrace like this requires a bit more effort but leaves your hands completely free, of course, dueling is markedly harder as you have to move your entire arm like you'd move a wand, an upside of this method of casting is aim, one wizard I knew could take the winds off a butterfly at 500 paces, and because the wand is against your whole arm you're drawing out more magic at a time."  
Maurice sighed quietly as he caught the manic glint in Ollivander's eyes and just knew he'd have to go through all the wands again, with the vambraces this time.  
Eventually, Maurice left the shop 18 galleons down with a wand and a set of snug white leather vambraces hidden by his clothes, the wand he bought a phoenix feather and holly wand incorporated at the moment into his right brace. Once he chose an arm for the wand he could get another but he'd have to have gotten used to casting first Ollivander explained.  
Maurice dreaded the eventual return to the wandmaker for another 3 hours testing more wands.

Maurice didn't use his wand for many things at all at most he wore his vambraces and memorized which bricks/dots/garden gnomes to tap to enter Britain's various magical settlements. Hogsmeade Village for example required a game of hopscotch on a set of cobblestone on the middle of a nature walk in the highlands, three hops forward four back to reveal another path through the trees. In Vertic Alley in Glasgow, you had to fist bump and high five a carved and age-worn wooden statue of Benny Lynch the boxer which turned the wall behind him into a walkway and those were the least weird. Maurice decidedly tried to forget the creepy wax museum entranceway to UnKanie Alley in Inverkeithing.  
His first job in the wizarding world had been to transport a magically expanded crate full of oak blocks and glass to Inverness down to Diagon alley neither of the items could withstand magical travel well for their intended purpose. The oak was riddled with creatures called bowtruckles and would go to Ollivander's wandshop to make magical foci, the oak that didn't make the cut would go to Eeylops Owl Emporium, Quality Quidditch Supplies and Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment as woodchips, bird food (bowtruckles), wooden display stands and fire timber respectively. The raw glass was made into potion vials and perfume bottles and the like using wizarding techniques.  
Usually, these deliveries were outsourced to Mundane delivery companies by a ministry front company however a recent law change in the muggle world had driven the price of such deliveries right up, resulting in wizards being hired to either fly or drive the deliveries themselves.

It was in the middle of such a delivery of armadillo shell cruising down a country road in Scotland at 250mph that Maurice was accosted by a goat, this is not a euphemism get your head out of the gutter.  
The goat was glowing and silvery and spoke in his current employer Mr. Jiggers voice sounding worried.  
"Bluewind, the shipment has been redirected, head to new drop-off point in Hogsmeade. Dervish & Banges will take the Armadillo Armor, for now, Do not return to Diagon Alley until you've been given the all-clear"  
The ghostly goat faded away into mist.  
Maurice blinked "What?"


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wizarding Britain experiences a polarizing event, a political revolution and Maurice deals with death and contemplates the question of great responsibility and even greater power.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

After handing over the delivery Maurice went to learn why he'd been warned away from Diagon Alley heading to the Three Broomsticks for a late lunch, a radio in the bar broadcast the chilling news.

"We still have no suspects of this most heinous of crimes the scene of devastation here in Diagon Alley has been likened to the aftermath of the aerial bombing of 1940, magical investigators have however confirmed that each explosive device used was magical in origin.  
Gringotts Goblins, witches and wizards working together can be seen amidst the rubble clearing the debris and pulling those unfortunate few out of the rubble, Flourish & Blotts bookstore is gone, Knockturn Alley is currently ablaze with cursed fire every colour of the rainbow.  
Investigations point to the devastating explosions being used as a diversion as parties unknown drilled and blasted their way into Gringotts bank lower levels using a magical automaton killing an estimated 300 goblins, 37 humans and 19 security dragons.  
Many lower-level vaults are now inaccessible due to underground collapses, poison gasses and traps set by the invader.  
The Auror force is currently combating the cursed fires of Knockturn Alley stopping their spread into Greater London.  
By and large this is a dark day for British wizardry, more news to come"

Maurice settled himself into a corner of the pub and ordered some food settling down to listen to the wireless as many other patrons were doing.  
Focusing on his meal he nonetheless kept his ears metaphorically pricked, picking up strands of conversation over the noisy pub.

"Where will the students get their supplies this September?"  
"How will people get their money?"  
"Do you think Ollivander is alright? I don't want my son getting a frog wand"  
"Well you can't say the Aurors aren't trying to do something, there just aren't enough of them"  
"Hope Fudge gets the sack for this, this is his fault"

"Horrible isn't it?" Maurice looked up at the person who had addressed him, Madam Rosmerta.  
Maurice nodded solemnly sipping his drink "Sounds like it isn't over either, I'm dreading going back to Diagon after this." And really he was, the news reports sounded horrible as, unlike the non-magical reporters the newswitch was being very descriptive leading to some very graphic mental imagery.  
"Well you can stay over tonight in the spare room if you want, there are going to be a lot of folk causing trouble tonight with the Aurors occupied and I don't want anything happening to my favourite delivery boy."  
"Thanks, Rosie"

A chill went up Maurice's spine was he gazed up at the corrugated iron and plywood wall around the former Leaky Cauldron, fencing it off from non-magical eyes with a farce of a construction site.  
Tapping three times on the door as instructed over the wireless Maurice braced himself for what he might see and walked through the now illusionary doorway.  
The first thing Maurice noticed was that the Leaky Cauldron was gone, completely and utterly. Vague outlines of wood and stone jutting up from the ground showed where walls had been, the actual debris of walls, furniture and building materials either incinerated by the wild fiendfyre or cleared away by the Unspeakable's.  
There was no magical brick boundary between the cauldron and Diagon Alley and so steeling himself Maurice took his eyes off the ground and for the first time actually looked at the alley.  
It was beyond his wildest nightmares.  
The ground of Diagon Alley was scorched black in places though rain and the effort of Aurors on cleanup duty had done a lot to hide the damage some things were impossible to hide for those observant enough. Like the soot in between the cobblestones and in the joinery in buildings in the alley, some bricking had a distinct ripple pattern as if it had started to melt from extreme heat.  
Other things were more overt Ollivander's Wand store was a burnt-out shell, wood and shelving reduced to little more than blackened charcoal standing like dead trees in a graveyard.  
Flourish & Blotts was worse in a way than Ollivander's, not even a frame remained of the bookstore, hundreds of enchanted books feeding the cursed fire to the heat of dragon fire. A small square had been cordoned off by the Ministry, the door leading to the basement where so many people and employees had sought shelter from the fighting in the alley only to be choked to death when the cursed fire had eaten through the wards and filled the basement with smoke.  
Knockturn Alley was cordoned off completely, the entire alley completely gutted out. The ground had given way during the Aurors fire-fighting efforts into what the Department of Law Enforcement was calling a underground black market alley which was also completely melted by the fire, killing who knows how many.  
The biggest tragedy of the day was as breathtaking as it was demoralizing, the once white marble entranceway of Gringotts the first sight a muggleborn saw upon entering Britain's wizarding world for the first time and long assumed enchanted to be indestructible was little more than rubble, green, red and black blood staining the floor and walls where the intruder has slain all resistance.  
In truth, the humans, goblins and security dragon had put up a courageous fight but the aggressor had simply swept them aside like wheat in the wind, before using golems and copious spell work to burrow straight down from the marble mezzanine doing incredible structural damage and then escaping once he had/or she whatever he wanted.

The complete anonymity of the attacker versus the uproar created was astounding it was only just yesterday that Minister Fudge had faced a coup lead by a furious Madam Bones.  
Perhaps if Minister Fudge hadn't attempted to shift the blame of the attacks outcome onto the goblins and Muggleborn his career would have survived even if only by the skin of his teeth.  
But the entire Auror core had been in the thick of the fighting side by side with the goblins both sides had fought a losing battle against a far superior opponent, forging a mutual camaraderie born of war.  
Upon assuming control with the full support of the Auror office and the Unspeakable's Madam Bones declared martial law taking control of Wizarding Britain and instituting sweeping changes geared at reforming law enforcement to something more in gear with their non-magical counterparts.  
Not much was known about what was happening behind the closed doors of the ministry nowadays, though it was confirmed that the defacto leader was in talks with the International Wizarding Confederation about something.

Unable to face the sight of the ruined alley where so many people had died Maurice walked back out the way he came erupting into a run by the time Maurice stopped he was in Magnolia Crescent near the Dursley's house. Unwilling to return to the Dursley's just yet Maurice made his way to the local park, very early Sunday meaning the place was virtually deserted, Maurice climbed to the top of the monkey bars and from there leapt and pulled himself up onto the bough of a tree, leaning against the trunk.  
Maurice didn't quite fall to pieces but it was a close thing, here was a 10 year old who had just had to deal with the deaths of numerous acquaintances.  
Acquaintances not friends, which was why he wasn't bawling his eyes out, but to lose so many of them all at once…

'Forget about it, you created that stupid contraption in the first place why should I have to go about cleaning up your messes!'

"Shut up, Shut Up, SHUT UP…" Maurice pressed the heels of his balms into his closed eyes trying to convince himself that the burning feeling in his eyes was dust and not approaching tears.  
These people may have barely known him but they had acknowledged him, Not as a child or as some mythical hero-  
And maybe, in part, that was the problem.  
"I'm not him…"  
He was 10 years old.  
'I'm not a hero'  
It was irrational.  
"I'm not!"  
It still hurt.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> McGonagall behaves irresponsibly, Maurice gets his Hogwarts letter, the revolution continues to change the British Magical Government and a detective agency is formed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

In a large magical castle in the Scottish highlands, a rather irked tabby cat clawed, bit and scratched at a toy doll fashioned to look like a plush Gandalf in a tie-dye robe before tossing the effigy against a wall, jumping off the desk and transforming into a severe-looking old witch.  
The reason for the literal hissy fit? As clear as day on her desk, a letter to be sent to a prospective student.

Mr. Maurice Bluewind  
The Earth beneath your feet  
United Kingdom  
Gaia  
Earth

Mrs. Minerva McGonagall despite previously shredding an effigy of her employer in a fit of angry kitty fury was not angry with the man, she simply needed something convenient to shred without causing undue collateral damage to her surroundings.  
Also, Dumbledore was at the ICW about something and thankfully not present to walk into a dueling practice match with the temperamental witch.  
Reason being that Professor Minerva McGonagall was a little bit angry and had a tendency to forgo transfiguration to just blow things up when mad.  
The reason she was mad went like this:

Clearly, some doaty dobber needed a thorough skelpin round the lug, and whit was Rosemerta thinking? Employing a ween tae transport things aboot the country. And whits worse the bonnie wee trollop ad made her a parties to it!  
Which was just braw a regular day at ogwarts even. AYE RIGHT! Prawly some prats bum's oot the winday or aff dere heid. Either way McGonagall dinnae hae a clue whit to do, sae shed haud her wheesht. anywho the baw's not on the slates yet, not if she'd use her gumption and dauntered on doon tae three broomsticks and done er dinger with said bonnie we trollop laldy and make her haud HER wheesht.

Professor Minerva McGonagall was the very stereotype of a Scotswoman, utterly terrifying.

Three days after the fire Maurice got airmail in the form of a rather exhausted looking owl, the harried feather duster looked like it had flown up and down the country trying to find him i.e. chasing him down, Maurice assumed a rather sheepish expression at the owls glare. Taking the letter and deftly dodging the annoying annoyed avian claws as it flew off, Maurice sat on a bench outside Hogsmeade post office and settled down to read breaking the red wax seal with the Hogwarts school insignia.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY  
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore  
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorcerer, Chief Warlock,  
Supreme Mugwump, International Confederation of Wizards)

Dear Mr. Bluewind, We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.  
Term begins on 1 September.  
We await your owl by no later than 31 July.

Yours sincerely,  
Minerva McGonagall  
Deputy Headmistress

The rest of the parchment included a booklist and an extra sheaf of parchment

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Due to the recent incident in Diagon Alley several changes have been made:  
All school supplies can be sourced from Broomheed Alley in Cambridge  
The restriction on first years bringing their own brooms has also been lifted.

Yours sincerely,  
Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore  
Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorceror, Chief Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confederation of Wizards

Right, Diagon Alley was gone-  
'Don't think about it'  
Maurice gazed up at the huge brickwork castle behind him, he hadn't really taken notice of time passing since Diagon Alley, he'd buried himself in transporting, putting off his desire for international travel even longer, running solely for running had lost its luster though it kept his mind clear from nightmares.

As well as the heightened travel restrictions making people jump through even more hoops to go anywhere.  
Madam Bones was holding onto power with an iron grip, the secrecy of the ministry at an all-time high, The Auror Force had increased massively and was joined by new divisions Wizarding Army of National Defence, the Nautical Fathom Force, the Sky Patrol Task Force and probably more yet to be unveiled.  
The Goblins had gained full equal rights in Britain under the Bones Leadership, a great many joining the new divisions. Maurice had expected a little protest from the public about that but saw nothing about it in the papers, to which he's just shrugged.  
One thing he had to suffer through was listening to the seemingly unending debate over the wizarding sports every time he walked into public places, Bones had cut International sports from the Ministry letting them manage themselves.  
Which, without government support to cover up things up had exposed massive corruption, Maurice liked sport, wizarding sport not so much.  
All said a lot had changed in the wizarding world, cleaner and fairer somehow in an unquantifiable way.  
Maurice gazed up at the castle expression hardening learning magic might just help distract him and maybe, just maybe he could help next time.

The Hogwarts Express was an experience Maurice decided as he settled in an empty compartment, honestly though he'd rather be running but tradition being what it was dictated all Hogwarts students arrive by train, the long hours aboard the train forced into close quarters with each other supposedly making it easier for the Sorting Hat he'd been told about.

In a different compartment, a rather unhappy teen rolled his shoulders with a wince.  
"You okay Lee?" asked the redheaded freckled boy in the compartment.  
"I'm fine Fred, didn't get enough sleep last night" grumped the boy wizard, Tall for his age with a dark complexion, black dreadlocks and odd purple eyes Lee Jordan was an oddity at Hogwarts, in his first year Lee had had an interest in potions which had like many other students died a swift death upon meeting his teacher.  
That interest had completely switched to exploring and treasure hunting in Hogwarts an odd change from prospective potioneer to treasure hunter to be sure.  
Fred Weasley was his constant companion in these ventures having needed something to focus on after the falling out with his twin brother the year before last.  
But this year Lee would be occupied by other things and Fred found he liked exploring and hunting around for things in Hogwarts unexplored nooks and crannies therefore he needed a partner to watch his back hence the third person in the compartment.  
"So what makes you think you have what it takes to be a detective?"  
The third occupant of the compartment gave no indication of offense "I simply wish to put my abilities to good use and redeem my family's reputation and joining the group that found the four Loyalty Crystals of Hogwarts would be a good first step"  
Fred inwardly winced at the mention of the crystals in question hoping for a tamer year than the last one.  
"You're in."  
Blaise Zabini raised an eyebrow "Just like that?"  
"You wrote a very compelling CV and with the amount of trouble Fred gets into he'll need someone competent to bail him out of the fire" Lee explained with a fond eye roll.  
Blaise yelped when he was pulled into a noogie by Fred dignity and composure out the window.  
"Well, it looks like the Discord Detectives are back in business once again! You sure you don't want to rejoin Lee?"  
Lee leaned back against the wall with a wince "No can do I've got stuff to research"  
"Good luck, I'll keep my eye out for any of that Druid stuff you were looking for"

Meanwhile, Maurice had just settled himself into the compartment and with nothing to do for the next however many hours cracked open a book, when at that moment the door opened.  
"Excuse me, do you mind? Everywhere else is full." Maurice looked up and felt the breath leave him "Not at all" hair red like fire stunning blue eyes the color of the sky on a sunny day…


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maurice has no idea how to react to someone his own age luckily Susan is as mature as he is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

"I'm Susan, by the way. Susan Bones"  
"Maurice Bluewind, at your service, here let me help you with your trunk"  
Susan smiled as Maurice carefully dragged the trunk into the compartment putting it under a seat "Such a gentleman"  
"I aim to please, milady"  
Susan blushed and Maurice inwardly cursed Mrs. Figs whose sappy romance novels he was drawing reference from.  
"So are you a first-year like me?"  
"Yes, What house are you hoping for? I'm hoping for Ravenclaw"  
"Read much?"  
Maurice nodded abashedly waving The Standard Book of Defensive Spells (Grade 1) by Rufus Scrimgeour before grinning "also can you imagine someone like me dressed in red, yellow or green?"  
Susan smirked "You'd clash with yourself horribly"  
Maurice pointed his nose in the air in mock offense sending Susan into helpless giggling.  
"So what are you like in the air?"  
Maurice groaned into his hands "Please tell me you're not a Quidditch fanatic"  
Susan shook her head "I meant racing like the Sky Patrol, My aunt took me to their Sky Show last week"  
Maurice's eyes lit up with unholy light "Did you see that one racer who came in on a hippogriff?"  
Chatting about the Ministry's latest recruitment drive the two made themselves comfortable as they got to know each other.  
Susan seemed to gather herself for a second "So are you a Metamorphmagus?"  
Maurice blinked at the off-topic question "Excuse me?  
Susan blushed lightly "It's just your hair is bright blue and the only person I know who can do that is Auror Moody's apprentice who can change her own appearance"  
Maurice waved it off "I got drenched by a dodgy mixture and changed color when I was a kid"  
"Huh"  
Just then the door opened and an elderly lady peaked her head in "Anything off the trolley dears?"  
"I'll have a dozen chocolate frogs"  
"I'll have two jelly slugs, a dozen of Mr. Spindle's Lick "O" Rish Spiders and four Pumpkin Pasties"  
"Hungry are you?" asked Susan at the last part of the order.  
Maurice shrugged taking two Pumpkin Pasties out offering one to Susan and placing the rest of the box at the end of the seating out of the light "It's for later, it's going to take hours to get to Scotland at this snail's pace let alone Hogwarts"  
Susan pinched the bridge of her nose lightly "Now why didn't I think of that?" her expression cleared "anyway about what I was saying earlier that apprentice I was talking about? She tripped and I ended up drenched in an experimental potion when Aunty took me to work one day."  
"What was your original hair color then?"  
"My hair color didn't actually change, but I ended up in St. Mungos but in the end my memory did become way better, It's actually the reason why I don't need to bring any books to Hogwarts I can remember them in my head"  
Maurice blinked "Lucky"  
Susan bit into a chocolate frog "All that really means is that Auntie is making me take the theory part of the exams early, I still have to actually learn magic so I won't be bored at least."  
"Speaking of boredom what are we going to do for the next few hours?"  
Companionable silence reigned for a few moments as both students ate their sweets.  
"I think I brought a chess set, maybe?" Susan offered

Much later  
"We should get dressed" Maurice grumped fresh from his 31st defeat at wizard chess vowing to introduce Susan to non-magical board games that didn't insult the player "suppose we should" grabbing a bundle of clothes Susan smirks exiting and closing the cabin door behind her. He changes in a minute and waits in the hall for Susan to get dressed, the carriage hallway is quiet, it's a change from the loud screaming of hyper children hopped up on candy earlier. Susan opens the door in uniform and Maurice re-enters.  
"So I noticed you have a Nimbus where'd you get it?" Maurice looks up at the broomstick in the overhead rack "Owl ordered it and everything else"  
"You didn't go to Broomheed then?" Susan asks abruptly.  
Maurice shook his head "Felt wrong after Diagon Alley, Next year though"  
"I only asked because Broomheed's flying store ran out of stock last week and Auntie did say some people were selling fake or cursed brooms"  
Maurice rolled his eyes pulling down the Nimbus 2000 broom from the rack and waving it pointedly "I got this in Diagon Alley before, it's not cursed"  
"Good I don't want to lose my first friend to shoddy workmanship"  
"Because you'd get less free pasties, Nice to be appreciated for the right reasons at least" Maurice snarked, Susan giggled.  
"So Maurice, how good are you at flying?"  
Maurice shrugged "Ok but I'd rather run, I'm faster"  
Susan looked skeptical "The nimbus 2000 goes from 0 to 130 in 5 seconds"  
"Yes, your point? You didn't think the blue hair was the only change did you? I really am the fastest thing alive"  
"Show me later?" Asked Susan  
"Only if I can call you Sue"  
"Done, and what can I call you Mr. Fastest Thing Alive?"  
Maurice shrugged in amusement "I'm sure you'll figure something out."


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A boat ride and the Sorting Ceremony.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

Disembarking from the Hogwarts Express and following the other first years Maurice and Susan took one of the empty boats to themselves which once seated then began to propel itself magically through the water.  
Clearing the sight of the boathouse a sea of stars greeted the prospective Hogwarts students, Maurice and Susan gazed across the Black Lake together to the towering castle before them, glittering eerily like a many-faceted jewel in the starry night of a Van Gogh painting of the same name.  
Seeing it like this Maurice was struck briefly by the momentous moment before him, a new path a new future…  
"It's beautiful" Susan breathed Maurice nodded throat dry, he'd seen it from Hogsmeade but on the lake, at night the sight was truly mesmerizing.  
The boats glided silently under the cliffs the trailing moss and vines giving off a luminescent glow.  
"It's like a fairytale" sighed Susan the whispers of other first years creating a gentle echo in the underground port.  
"Yeah" Maurice nodded.  
Susan abruptly pointed at the dock "Look!"  
"Oh wow" Just when you think it couldn't get better.  
Faeries flittered around the bushes alit by a path of blue ghost fire, lighting the path from the dock to the doors of the castle. Maurice side-eyed the enthralled Susan and had an idea. Alighting onto the dock Maurice turned and made a half bow and offered a hand "Shall we meet our destiny together my fair lady?"  
Susan blushed and accepted his hand feeling every inch a princess going to her fantasy castle with her loyal knight.

The moment was lost as the other fist year nosily chattered making their way up the steps but still with a smile both first years walked towards the doors.  
A figure stood at the door to greet them with a warm smile.  
"Welcome to Hogwarts future students, I am Professor Sinistra of Astronomy, we at Hogwarts hope you will have many happy years ahead at our fine institution."  
She honestly reminded Maurice of Whoopi Goldberg the resemblance was uncanny in a sheer dead ringer kind of way.  
"In a few short moments these doors will open and you will join these halls as students sorted into one of the houses, so smarten up and put your best foot forward"  
Maurice looked around at the others from a frizzy-haired girl waging war with a comb and redhead with dirt on his nose to Susan who was nervously brushing down her robes at the back, Maurice tightened his collar and stood straight, then the door opened.  
Filing into the hall between two tables fifty-one 11-year-olds gawked at the golden illuminated hall full of smiling older students.  
Maurice glanced up at the enchanted night sky ceiling, idly appreciating the view comparing it to the many times he had slept beneath the sky when traveling and realizing that the view was slightly magnified as though through a telescope. Hundreds of floating candles illuminated the hall casting the golden light that warmed the halls.  
At the back of the hall, there was a raised dais where the professors sat as if holding court over the students, which made sense if the castle really was over a thousand years old.

Sinistra led them to the place nearest the high tables between the four long tables accepting a list from a diminutive professor she turned to the waiting first years. "When I call your name you will sit on this stool and the sorting hat will sort you into your houses after which you will take a seat at your house table."  
Maurice gazed at the hat which looked like it was grinning, rather creepily too, Maurice was not looking forward to this not one bit.

"Abbot, Hannah"

The first year near sauntered to the hat as if expecting something and placed it on her head-

"SLYTHERIN!"

-whatever she was expecting it wasn't that as the hat shouted out her house, she looked a bit shocked before making her way to the green table.

"Bluewind, Maurice"

Maurice took a deep breath and stepped forward sitting on the stool to accept the hat as it slid down.

'So you're the source of all the chaos lately, interesting'  
Maurice was distinctly uneasy about this entire experience.

'Smart boy, Better be-' "RAVENCLAW!"

Handing off the hat to Sinistra Maurice walked carefully to the Ravenclaw table hiding his wobbly legs from sight unexplainably glad that the odd hat was off his head.  
Maurice gathered his wits enough to clap as Susan was sorted into Ravenclaw with him and budged up, she had an odd look about her face like the cat that caught the canary "What's wrong Sue?"  
Susan smiled beatifically "Karma" and subtly gestured at the green table toward the rather upset looking first-year "That girl made my life miserable as a child when I got doused by that memory potion I grew up a bit, she didn't like the changes I went through for one I told her that my Godfather Moody was a former Slytherin and she called me evil"  
Maurice leveled an unimpressed gaze at the girl "Looks like the shoes on the other foot now"  
An older student interrupted "So how are you finding Hogwarts so far? I'm Nicolas Grimmett, Ravenclaw Prefect"  
"Susan Bones"  
"Maurice Bluewind, firstie, literally"  
Susan lightly smacked Maurice's elbow at the pun and the prefect grinned "The feast will being soon so hold it till then"  
"What is everyone looking so shocked" Susan gestured around the hall at the rapidly changing reactions at each sorting.  
The prefect pursed his lips as if unsure how to answer and decided to bite the bullet "well you see a few years ago you could usually predict where a student went by their family and bloodline, then it just suddenly changed"

"Macmillan, Ernest" "SLYTHERIN!"

Maurice observed the first years getting sorted and indeed they looked a bit jumpy as they eyed the sorting hat with trepidation.

"Malone, Roger"

The prefect perked up and scanned the crowd of first years with a surprised air "That's odd…"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"What's odd?" asked Susan curious.  
"I was expecting someone else before him, maybe that family sent him to another school… eh its nothing"  
Nicolas the Prefect continued explaining the sorting hats off behavior "Anyway rumor goes that the hat either went on strike or was cursed, it used to sing at every welcoming feast but stopped a year or so ago, though I think all the students agree that's no great loss, terrible singing voice. To make up for it nowadays the first-year approach to the castle looks quite beautiful after the change as you saw earlier"  
Maurice nodded teasingly side-eying Susan "Sue really liked it" who elbowed him.  
Just then an upswing in noise in the hall dragged their attention to the sorting "What's going on?"  
"One of the students didn't show" hissed another Ravenclaw first year "Weren't you paying any attention?"  
Maurice blinked disinterestedly "No" and turned back to Susan.  
The teacher at the head table called for silence and Professor Sinistra continued calling out the next name on the list.

"Rivers, Oliver" "HUFFLEPUFF!"

After a while of listening to the student being sorted ending on Blaise Zabini "SLYTHERIN!" and hearing no more upsets all were seated and the Professor at the head table arose.  
"Welcome new students of Hogwarts and to our returning students, welcome back. I am Acting Headmistress Minerva McGonagall, Professor of Transfiguration After the feast I have a few announcements to make until then dig in"  
Maurice blinked as the tables near creaked at the sudden appearance of a banquet fit for a medieval king and his court.  
Grabbing some sausages Maurice settled in to eat as he listened to Susan and the other first years interrogate the prefect who was happy to answer their questions "…and the one with purple robes sitting to the right of Potions Professor Horace Slughorn is Professor Quirinus Quirrell who teaches Muggle Studies, his field trips are legendary."  
Another sixth-year student spoke up "We went to see the Hiroshima Peace Memorial in Japan last year, before that we went to Walt Disney World Resort and before that, we went to the watch the Atlantis shuttle launch in America-"  
"Did he say where we're going this year?" Interrupts another student.  
"They usually decide by November it's the reason so many people sign up for the class in third year, bribing the students with a fun break somewhere exotic"  
Maurice let the noise wash over him occasionally interjecting a point but content to let Susan lead the way.  
By the time dessert had arrived Maurice was leaning slightly against an indulgent Susan who was sipping some hot chocolate and talking about the ministry reforms with another student.

The figure at the head table rose tapping a fork against a goblet creating a loud attention-grabbing ringing sound.  
"Now that we've all eaten and I have your attention it's time to go over the school rules and news. Firstly for those of you who don't know, I am Professor Minerva McGonagall and current acting headmistress in the unavoidable absence of Headmaster Dumbledore due to ICW matters. Secondly, the point system of previous years will no longer be used"

Instant uproar.

"Settle down! This is because the point distribution enchantment which was tied to the house point hourglasses was damaged the previous year and after examination by half a dozen experts has been judged irreparable. No replacement has yet been devised"  
Eyeing them as if daring the students to protest Professor McGonagall continued speaking.  
"Next onto some staffing changes, we have Professor Lucretia Prewett of Transfiguration and Professor Ignatius Prewett of Defence Against the Dark Arts. Professor Sinistra will be taking the position of Gryffindor Head of House and Professor Filius Flitwick will be the new acting deputy Headmaster"  
Chattering started up again silenced by the intimidating Scotswoman's glare.  
"The list of banned and restricted objects and enchantments has been updated and copies will be posted in each dormitory later tonight, all brooms brought into the castle will be inspected as part of the Ministry's new Broomstick Serialisation Act tomorrow in response to the recent upswing in unsafe fakes in the market"  
Startled, Maurice glanced at Susan who only gave a weak smile.  
"Worry not all brooms will be returned in the condition they started in without curses or an equally high quality replacement offered free of charge to the affected student. Or else." The slightly savage grin on the Scotswoman's face seemed to reassure the students who were fellow flying fans.  
"Incidentally this year thanks to the Nimbus Racing Broom Company Hogwarts has been gifted with 30 Nimbus 2000 brooms exclusively for games and practice, Now that's it for the announcements its now time for bed, first years follow the prefects to your dormitories"


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First day of classes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

Nicolas Grimmett stood "Ravenclaw first years! Follow me!" The female prefect went ahead with the upper years filing out of the great hall in a mildly orderly manner.  
Positively tottering next to Susan, Maurice yawned tiredly. Really good food, a welcome atmosphere, the company of new friends and all beneath the night sky, he and the other first years were about dead on their feet in contented exhaustion.  
Regardless of how tired he was Maurice kept track of the route to the Ravenclaw common room and was startled when a soft musical voice rang out from the front of the crowd.  
An ornate door knocker in the shape of an animated bronze eagle with sapphires for eyes was speaking "You buy me to eat, but never eat me. What am I?"  
Grimmett turned to the first years "This is the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room, unlike the other houses our entrance is guarded not by password but by year-appropriate riddles, the answer to this one I think is Silverware"

"Correct!" Chimed the eagle knocker, swinging inwards to reveal a passageway.

Blue banners, blue curtains, blue carpet bronze trimmings on the walls and bronze and blue decorations… Maurice already liked the place.  
The Prefect Grimmett gestured around him "Welcome to the Ravenclaw common room house of the Intelligent, we have our own library with copies of everything in the Hogwarts library and contributions from our alumni however unlike the open library on the first floor this one is enchanted to grant the user what they need, the wards around the library act following intent, for example, a 1st year can't find a spell that would send them into magical exhaustion if they cast it, but by that same logic you can always find what you need, Usually you can look for a book and find it in at least 5 minutes wherever you're looking."  
"Curfew is at 10pm for all students except 1st years which is at 8pm so be back in the common room before then. The first-year dorm rooms are on the ground level and the 7th year dormitory is on the top floor. Student years have individual rooms to themselves thanks to our charms teacher and head of house, Professor Filius Flitwick."  
Leading the group of students to a archway the prefect spoke "Boys head down the right corridor and find the room with your trunk, girls do the same on the left these will be your rooms for the rest of the year. I'll be in the common room if you have any questions"  
Entering the first year dormitory at the far end of the hallway Maurice immediately zeroed in on his trunk at the foot of a plush four-poster bed that looked heavenly, changing into a set of pajamas Maurice flopped onto the bed half asleep but listening to the wind whistling around the tower, lulling him to sleep.

September 2nd 1991, Ravenclaw Tower  
The morning was quite warm possessed of a very faint tint of water coating the windows from the lake precipitation, Maurice felt none of that half embedded in the soft mattress and half-buried in the thick duvet cover. He could hear the wind winding its way around Ravenclaw tower brushing the many glass windows with a pleasant chiming. Contemplating lying in a little longer he shook his head to himself and forced himself upright after all he wanted to go for a run and explore the castle now whilst it was still early.  
He'd explored the land surrounding Hogsmeade before he'd gotten his letter but the Hogwarts wards forbid any passage into the Hogwarts grounds, which encompassed the lake, the forest, the mountains to the north and the grassy plains to the south side of the lake.  
The entire location was enchanted to be unplottable even with Hogsmeade right next door, but for Maurice who ran on foot too fast to be affected by intent wards before he'd ran a mile right through them? Not so much.  
Strictly speaking Maurice (or anyone else) wasn't meant to know the exact location of Hogwarts, but through some clever triangulation using Hogsmeade as a marker, he had managed to pin the location and even figure out the real non-magical name of the Black Lake, Loch Fannich. To the north, enchanted to appear to non-magical as a small mount but actually formidably tall stood the mountain range known as Sgùrr Mòr.  
The jagged peaks held innumerable magical creatures, plants and parasites and unlike the Forbidden Forest was actually warded to prevent entry or exit. It was impossible to even fly over because the place was home to a colony of Augurey-Fwooper hybrids whose songs echoed for miles. Though how an african bird renowned for causing insanity with its song came to reside in the Scottish highlands as an invasive species was unknown.  
Slipping on a fresh set of school uniform from his trunk now blue-rimmed by magic Maurice quietly made his way downstairs trying to avoid disturbing those next door with his footsteps.  
It turns out he wasn't the only one with that idea as moments after he entered the common room he was joined by a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Susan.  
Maurice mentally shelved the run in favor of saying hi. "Morning Susan, good night's sleep?"  
Susan beamed "Great! Did you hear the windows whistling all night?"  
The bluenet nodded "Sent me right to sleep easily enough, I only got up this early because I wanted to explore early before classes, Join me?"  
Susan smiled "Let's go then" Maurice grabbed his book bag remembering at the last minute that Susan didn't need one and the two exited the common room together.  
They stopped at more that one wizard portrait on the way to the great hall, a particularly helpful one, George von Rheticus directed them towards the Great Hall muttering about 'catching em early' and spoke at great lengths of the Professor of Astronomy whom he seemed to greatly admire.  
Out of eyeshot Maurice subtly mimed gagging and was rewarded with an elbow to the side by Susan who was hiding a smile of her own.  
Eventually making their way back to the Great hall Maurice virtually wolfed down breakfast consisting of bacon and eggs while he and Susan waited for the rest of their year to arrive.  
"The first day at a school learning how to warp the fabric of reality and everyone else is still snoozing" Grumbled Susan. Maurice laughed because when you put it like that…  
"So what are you looking forward to most?" asked Maurice idly as he checked the various jugs for anything fizzy.  
"Well, there are some really interesting things that can be done with defense" Susan recalled some of her aunties bedtime stories which oftentimes included said auntie whipping dark wizards behinds in a usually epic and highly unrealistic manner.  
Maurice shrugged "I like running a lot." for someone who had already found his life calling magic wasn't very interesting to him more of a distraction.  
"Well there is a language elective in 4th year that should help you if you want to travel the world"  
Something struck Maurice as odd "Why so late?" after all children absorbed languages like sponges, adults not so much.  
"I think it uses language potions and those are restricted"  
"Why?"  
Flitwick approached the table passing Maurice and Susan a timetable and spoke.  
"Because the inventor didn't restrict how much vocabulary the potion taught the user"  
Maurice took a moment to picture that and remembered exactly how mouthy the average child could get i.e. Dudley and restrained a grin "Swearing like sailors?"  
"Precisely" and was it his imagination or did Flitwick look particularly pained for some reason?  
"Hey, we've got Defence first thing!" exclaimed Susan attracting Maurice's attention as Professor Flitwick continued handing out timetables.  
Maurice glanced at the timetable "Then History of Magic till 11 and a break for lunch and at 2pm we have Charms then Transfiguration and Astronomy. Doesn't seem too bad. Are we sharing classes with anyone?"  
"With the Gryffindors first thing"  
Maurice flipped his bookbag strap over his shoulder "May as well head off early if you're so excited then"  
"Third Floor, Corridor C" chirped Susan Maurice smirked at her enthusiasm.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Worldbuilding/Lorebuilding? Maurice and Susan are the most mature 11-year-olds ever, Ron Weasley has a very different time in Gryffindor than he did in canon and Lee Jordan is up to something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling

September 2nd, 1991, Gryffindor Tower

Ronald Weasley distinctly despised being abruptly woken up in the morning as his mother would vehemently attest, he also distinctly disliked two of his four assigned roommates, specifically Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle.  
Vincent Crabbe with black hair and eyes was an intimidating bulky bruiser and in Ronald's solid opinion was as dumb as a box of bricks.  
Gregory Goyle with brown hair and dark grey eyes was less bulky than Vincent but taller and was likely slightly more intelligent seeing as he'd led Vincent through getting his things unpacked. They hadn't done anything, keyword being yet, but something about the two just rubbed Ronald the wrong way, like static in the air before a storm.  
The quiet loner Theodore Nott was tolerable seeming to prefer avoiding all contact with his dorm mates, sending letters off last night with a fairly large horned owl. Probably his parents Ronald surmised, the Nott's were a notorious dark aligned family and had been in Slytherin for literal generations, getting sorted into Gryffindor was probably a huge shock.  
In all honestly, Michael Corner was the only decent bloke of the lot, black hair and brown eyes and a nervous disposition but there was only so long a person could play exploding snap before the singing of eyebrows and minor card induced shellshock/deafness lost its appeal.  
So ruffled and a bit grumpy Ron had an early shower and got dressed before heading down to explore the castle by himself.  
Making his way to the Great Hall without getting lost was a cakewalk which Ronald put down to his chess move memory and helped himself to some breakfast and pumpkin juice. Getting his timetable from Professor Sinistra he noticed that his first class was with the Ravenclaws and not knowing where the defense classroom was followed some Ravenclaw first years that seemed to know where they were going. Ronald prayed that his granduncle Ignatius wouldn't single him out.  
Uncle Iggy was a blurry figure in Ronald's young childhood memories seeing him at the Welcoming Feast had been a real surprise.

Elsewhere in the castle  
"Have you made any progress regarding last year Mr. Jordan?"  
"Yes Professor Fronsac, I narrowed the runes down to the Celtic-druidic origin around 1st century"  
"10 years later than we thought not bad!"  
Professor Basil Fronsac was a wizarding portrait but the wealth and depth of his knowledge spoke well of the man in life.  
A skilled Arithmancer who worked in spell recreation in conjunction with his friend Cuthbert Binns, Fronsac was devastated when his younger friend died before him more so when he learned how little personality remained of his friend's memories when he'd become the schools newest ghost, Professor Binns.  
As is was Professor Basil then Headmaster Fronsac had immediately retired from Hogwarts to study in seclusion away from the memories, and for the near the entirety of his retirement bemoaned his choice of successor who had replaced his entire staff with, in his least colorful opinion, uninspired uninspiring whelps, though he did get a decent laugh in when The Hogwarts Pantomime Incident happened.  
Lee Jordan leafed through the parchment in the binder "I've managed to round it down to three sites in total, I'm going to scope them out on the weekends but I've no idea how to get at the site in Sgùrr Mòr"  
The portrait dawned an alarmed look "I highly doubt it's there of all places. It is completely defiled by black magic's not to mention the area is warded with wards stronger than the ones currently around the castle and even if you could get into them you'd have to survive a legion of nasty dark beasties"  
Lee met the gaze of the portrait "Why do you think I can't get in there?" as the last few years could attest the 3rd year redefined resourcefulness.  
Professor Fronsac flushed "The ward key to that place was lost decades ago" The professor was not going to admit he'd been the one to lose the key, the one all acting headmasters were required to pass it down to the next one. Not that he saw its loss as any great tragedy, he'd been rather preoccupied with some rather fascinating runic equations discovered in the old clock tower at that time.  
"And anyway even if you found the key only a current member of staff keyed to the Hogwarts wards can use it"  
Lee's face fell into a frown "Well, I hope it's not there, I'm not good at teaching people"

Defense Against the Dark Arts Classroom 3C - Ravenclaw & Gryffindor  
On his first look at the classroom, Maurice noticed that it was full of wall length tapestries depicting medieval-looking battlefields with armies clashing at different points in time at a second glance Maurice identified that the stitched figures were actually moving, from fantastic beasts to wizards flinging tiny bolts of light. Some tapestries were interestingly enough completely blurred out. But before Maurice could get a closer look the professor of transfiguration stepped into the room putting an end to his inspection.  
Professor Ignatius Prewett was one of those weather-beaten old men who gave the impression of an old big cat that hadn't quite yet lost his claws to age.  
On his first lesson with the first years, he gave a memorable speech and introduction.  
"Welcome first years to the first defense lesson of your lives, do not take out your books but do take notes. I suppose some of you are wondering why the sign on my door says 'Defence' instead of 'Defence Against the Dark Arts' That is because such a defense does not exist"  
The children were instantly enraptured as Professor Prewett continued speaking.  
"Some say spells aren't evil it's only the wielder, that in of itself is not completely true, true black magicks replace the essence of what was there before. One of the reasons mind control curses all fall under the banner of the dark is because of what it does that to the mind, as a prominent American writer once wrote I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" there was a brief ominous silence building the suspense and ensuring Professor Prewitt had his student's full attention.  
"So what are we defending ourselves against I hear you ask? The answer quite simple though very broadly defined, 'circumstance'."  
The looks of confusion were widespread.  
"I know, I know, that answer seems quite vague but it is simply the best way to explain what I aim to teach you. 'Circumstance' is not magic its simply the concept that one day you will find yourself in a possibly lethal situation, my job and your own is to prepare you for what awaits outside these walls, at the moment as you are first years we will practice stealth and evasion but for your homework I want each of you to create a list of magical creatures, beings, items and events anything that comes to mind that can cause harm to oneself and others and bring it into class"  
This part he spelled onto the board.  
"For now I want everyone to holler out a few suggestions anything you think might be dangerous and we'll discuss how to defend against them."  
The next 20 minutes were entertaining and fun for the whole class.  
From Zombies "kill it with fire"  
Spiders "A lovely little spell called Arania Exumai works on most insects with more than 3 legs including oddly enough Mackled Malaclaw which is the magical cousin of the lobster and the Chizpurfle a crab-like parasite that eats magic and electrical energy"  
Streelers "Do not touch the shell as it excretes a very potent poison that acts like a acid, use the levitation spell on the shell to move the snail"  
Brooms "Anchoring spells, sticking spells and Arresto Momento, flying lessons are this Friday so ask Professor Flitwick to teach it"  
Dark Wizards "You are eleven-year-old children, run"  
Werewolves "Don't be out on the full moon, we'll cover things like scent and heat blocking spells later"  
Maurice in particular enjoyed this class, he hadn't known there were spells that could let someone completely ignore quicksand and asked if it worked in peat bogs. The one reason he took a wide berth around the Scottish moors was the risk of disappearing into that muddy murky deathtrap, though he was a bit downtrodden when it was revealed that there was no spell to walk on water.  
Then the bell rang signaling the end of class.

After the last of the first years left an ordinary-looking tabby cat slipped silently into the room transforming into the formidable Acting-Headmistress McGonagall.  
"Interesting First Class very well done" McGonagall remarked.  
Ignatius smiled "Thanks, though it's only been the first class of the year"  
"Yet you are markedly better than our previous teachers"  
"Not a hard bar to reach I'm afraid" Ignatius and McGonagall both grimaced, previous years coming to mind.  
"If I may ask why did you decide to teach, I know you and Lucretia have been retired for a decently long while?"  
Ignatius looked to be steeling himself "Lucretia and I were there that day in Diagon Alley.."  
"I heard it wasn't a pretty sight"  
"We saw destruction and evil to the extent that hasn't been seen since the Second World War"  
A pause and Ignatius sighed.  
"Lucretia and I never fought in the last wizarding war, why would we have? Compared to the madness of Grindewald and his Crusade that so-called Lord Voldemort was an angry young upstart"  
McGonagall interrupted "I'd ask you not to say that Ignatius a lot of good people died to 'that young upstart' a lot of them my students and friends" he voice cutting and sharp.  
Ignatius leaned back and nodded "I apologize. In Diagon Alley that day I remembered the meaning of fear and I remembered something important from my youth."  
"And what lesson was that?"  
Ignatius met McGonagall's assessing gaze with a steely one of his own "That if there is one thing that has always rang true in my heart, it's that doing nothing while true evil exists is the worst crime of all"  
Just then a knock sounded on the door.  
"Enter"  
The blue-haired first year strode in up to the professors "Hello Professor Ignatius, I was wondering if there was any difference in spell casting when using bracers" Maurice pulled up the sleeves of his cloak to show the white bracers and explained further "Ollivander specially made it when the wands I tested didn't match and the school books keep talking about wand movements"  
Professor Ignatius studied the vambraces in fascination "Maurice is it? Its been a long time since I saw a pair of those, it simply means that you should say the incantation and visualize the movement while gesturing at the object you want to spell, it's a bit more mentally intensive than using a normal wand though"  
The professor nodded thoughtfully.  
"Not all spells need movements of long incantations primarily why those learned in using such foci are to be feared because they are simply very, very fast. I think Flitwick dueled a few of them in his youth and he always professed the utmost respect towards such opponents its best you ask him for more information but I was of the impression that you move your arm in the movement but point at the end result"  
"Thank you for the help professor"

Rushing upstairs to their next lesson on the 4th floor Maurice and Susan chattered about their first lesson, Maurice got the feeling he'd like the defense professor, the old man clearly knew his stuff.  
That stuff he and Susan had overheard outside the classroom about doing nothing while evil exists being evil was inspiring but it left Maurice feeling as conflicted as ever.  
Susan however had had the giggles ever since the last half hour of the lesson which basically amounted to 'If in danger from 'INSERT RANDOM OBJECT', a judicial application of fire may be prudent, to be fair a lot of living dangerous things first years were likely to encounter were flammable.

In another part of the school heading to Charms with the Hufflepuffs Ronald Weasley walked stiffly trying to ignore the obnoxious bleating of his dorm mates, now he definitively knew why he disliked Crabbe and Goyle. It had only been two hours but ever since he'd brought up spiders in Uncle Iggy's class they'd taken it as a weakness and homed in on it like vultures. Even though they'd been sorted into Gryffindor, House of the Brave it was clear they'd been be trained from birth to be Slytherins, and all the political backstabbing that went with it clearly hadn't just up and vanished. Nott had just ignored it walking towards the next class.  
Corner emulated Nott poorly in this, clearly amused by the drivel the two were spouting about Ronald and his silly fear of spiders. Ronald Weasley had the nagging feeling of dread that this was only the start of his troubles.

History of Magic Classroom 4F Ravenclaw & Slytherins  
Making their way to the History Classroom Susan Maurice and the rest of the class entered the open door and took their seats chatting amongst themselves. It was ten minutes later that the rest of the class noticed the ghost in the front of the class that was speaking and apparently had been 'teaching' for the last 5 minutes before anyone had noticed his droning. Maurice was completely shocked, the comparison between the previous lesson and this one was stark. The ghost didn't pay a whit of attention to the students at all and continued to lecture in monotone about goblins.  
At the end of the 'lesson' having retained absolutely nothing of the ghosts ramblings, Maurice spoke to Susan "That was quite possibly the worst teacher I have ever had, ever" Susan only nodded numbly in agreement feeling as if her head were made of cotton, another word for the lesson Susan thought dully was mind-numbing, literally.  
Maurice gently tugged Susan to the Ravenclaw common room dropping off his Defence and History books and fetching the books for the next three classes as well as the portable telescopes they needed for the last lesson of the day, hopeful lunch would shake off the boredom induced migraine.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maurice and Susan concur that Binns should be binned, Charms is the fun class, Transfiguration is DANGEROUS and Astronomy is now relevant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

September 2nd, 1991 – Great Hall - Lunch  
Near collapsing onto the bench next to Susan, Maurice pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed his eyes determinedly not thinking about the previous lesson. Susan was in a similar state.  
Maurice had a thought through the malaise "Sue? History's basically all theory and you've got photographic memory so why were you even in the class?"  
Susan went ramrod straight on the bench "That is a good question" Maurice blinked at Susan stumbled to her feet "Sue?"  
"How likely is it you think if I ask Flitwick to let me test out of History as fast as I can?"  
Maurice grinned shamelessly though tiredly waving one hand in a dizzy peace sign and propping his head on the table with the other "When you get your Newt in History next week, thanks to my suggestion I expect free tutoring"  
Susan answered his grin with a grin of her own and fearlessly strode up to the head table to find Professor Flitwick.

Charms Classroom 2E Ravenclaw & Gryffindor  
"Welcome first years to Charms in this class we will be learning to change the properties of an object, for example," The Professor swished his wand at the steaming mug on his desk and clearly enunciated a spell "Wingardium Leviosa" the mug began to float and landed softly in Professor Flitwick grasp, "I just charmed a mug to take on an aspect of air allowing it to temporarily float in the air"  
Professor Flitwick took a sip from the mug "Of course we will all be starting with feathers if we have enough time at the end of the lesson we'll take a bash at coloring charms"  
In conclusion, Professor Filius Flitwick was the sort of scatterbrained professor that was really fun to be around for everyone… Apart from Maurice who glared murder at the laughing Susan his blue hair now bright neon orange courtesy of her wand work, what's more, Maurice was certain she'd done it on purpose. By the end of the lesson, Flitwick had corrected the damage and Maurice was eager beyond belief to leave, least not because casting coloring spells with his bracer was like painting a small detailed image of a flower the size of a coin with a paint roller.  
Coincidentally and on a totally unrelated note, the next class was baffled at Professor Flitwick's classroom redesign which looked like something out of a Woodstock hippies festival.  
"Well think of it this way, you can always do interior design?" For that comment, Susan spent the rest of the lesson with pink skin and black and yellow hair she laughed it off, the gall of the woman.

Transfiguration Classroom 1B Ravenclaw & Gryffindor  
"Welcome students to the most dangerous magical discipline and witch or wizard can hope to attempt, My name is Lucretia Prewett née Black and as there are two Professor Prewett's in school you may call me Professor Lucretia." The witches smile transitioned into a less pleasant expression as she spoke belying the seriousness of the topic.  
"For your first day, we'll go over what not to do assisted by these lovely slides ever so generously donated to us by St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries"  
Professor Prewett moved to the back of the classroom closing the curtains to dim the light and started up a projector.  
"For example! Here students, is the very reason we do not attempt to use transfiguration to give aquatic animals legs" Maurice flinched at the image projected on the blackboard then realized with creeping horror that Professor Lucretia had three stacks of slides beside her.  
"Observe students how the man-eating killer whales which were granted mild sapience by the initial bridging of the aqua-terra divide and granted the legs of a large feline proceeded to assault the people of the Australasian Antarctic Mapping Expedition between 1911 and 1914. All in all an ill-fated attempt made by British and Australian wizards to create aquatic war mounts as an alternative to easily startled elephants and horses. It is believed that their goal was to create the creatures and have them be 'discovered' by the British Muggles for use in the First World War"  
After you managed to shake off sarcasm strewn lecture on the Dangers Of Transfiguration(TM) and accompanied nightmare fuel slides Lucretia Prewett was an exceedingly competent teacher, she handed out chopsticks then showed the class how to change them from wood to metal. Professor Lucretia spent the lesson going around the students correcting pronunciation.  
One thing she emphasized stuck with them "In sixth year you'll be expected to do all your spells silently. I do not expect you to start now but if you do start trying this now after you've mastered a spell it will help significantly in the following years" It was a testament to her force of personality that most of the students managed the transfiguration by the end of the lesson though still practicing to get to the point of silent casting.  
She held one student behind a Ravenclaw who hadn't made any progress nor even the smallest spark.  
All in all, Maurice had enjoyed the impromptu history lesson having grown up on documentary gems like 'The Occult History of the Third Reich' and films like 'Bram Stoker's Dracula' and 'The Alien Trilogy' thanks to a lifetime of sneaking into London cinemas. Susan however had been stiff faced for the majority of the lecture.  
"Sue? You ok?" asked Maurice "That little show at the start didn't scare you did it?"  
Susan grimaced "It was a bit graphic for first years wasn't it" she was surprised by Maurice's response. "I don't think so I've seen scarier films and some of the things I was taught in school were way worse than that"  
"Really?"  
Maurice felt a bit flatfooted, were the purely magical really that isolated from the non-magicals? "Well yeah, history lessons at my school were always really detailed, I remember when a group of kids at my school thought drawing swastikas everywhere was cool, the headteacher came down on the whole year like a ton of bricks, the entire school ended up watching this film all about concentration camps during world war two, sure over half the students had nightmares for weeks but not one parent complained. Especially as long as no one thought being a Nazi was 'cool' anymore"  
Susan looked thoughtful though a bit green "I guess…" Maurice resolved then and there to take Susan to the cinemas come the next available opportunity.

Astronomy Tower Ravenclaw & Slytherin  
Maurice withheld a smirk at the puffing Ravenclaws unused to climbing the winding staircase to the top of the astronomy tower. Maurice mentally congratulated the person who scheduled the previous class on the bottom floor, with the next class on the 6th, and left nary 5 minutes for the students to traverse the distance, all the while carrying awkwardly shaped telescopes and books.  
Susan, not quite as tired as the other first years only carrying a telescope case, spotted his smug smirk and debated pushing him down the stairs an expression on her face which broadcast that sentiment.  
A peace offering came in the form of Maurice sacrificing his jumper to Susan to shield her a bit more from the brisk evening winds in the high tower.  
The center of the tower was dominated by a large bronze moving model of the solar system spinning ever so slowly on differentiating axis's in a gyroscopic path.  
Maurice observed as a group of students in Slytherin green approached the other arriving Ravenclaws, the leader with black hair, blueish grey eyes, and wearing a green ascot in place of a Slytherin tie introduced himself.  
"Hello, I am Roger Malone it seems that we are sharing this lesson this evening…" Roger trailed off meaningfully expecting a response.  
"Susan Bones"  
"Maurice Bluewind"  
The expression on his face Maurice noted was a bit plastic as though rehearsed "So very nice to meet my fellow students on amicable terms, I'm afraid some of the other members of my house seem to subscribe to that ridiculously outdated notion of blood purity, alienating many of their school mates, you can trust however that I am not amongst that number"  
Susan holds her head high "I had heard that Slytherin was changing its ideology, nice to see it wasn't all talk."  
Maurice interjects hiding his discomfit "I haven't seen a trace of bigotry but to be fair it's only the first day, we still have an entire year to get through"  
Roger smiled knowingly "A wait and see approach how wise of you, your own views on this matter?"  
Maurice met the boys gaze evenly "If someone hits me I'll hit back, probably harder too"  
Roger's smile widened "I hope we can enjoy our school years if not in peace then on neutral terms please excuse me."  
Roger greeted the rest of the Ravenclaws as Susan and Maurice looked on.  
"I don't like him"  
"Maurice" Susan scolded  
"I can't help it I feel greasy just talking with him" The way Roger has spoken was almost practiced and certainly staged.  
Susan quietly spoke, careful to not be overheard by the rest of the year "Roger is part of the Malone family, the entire family follows the lead of Tiberius Ogden a political giant in the Wizengamot"  
"So he's a politician in the making? That explains a whole lot" The hoity-toity way of speaking to foist connections reeked of political maneuvering and it made Maurice uneasy to see that expression on his eleven-year-old classmate.  
"Possibly but the family tend to offer and draw support to the commons"  
And just why did that make the hair on the back of his neck rise. "Meaning?.."  
"Meaning" Susan emphasized "That the family members tend to find out a lot of interesting things that the wouldn't otherwise"  
"You mean that they're Ogden's spies?"  
Susan shushed him not that they'd been talking above a soft whisper in the first place.  
"Not in as many words, they believe in a slogan of 'law that benefits all' it made them really unpopular for years because they included beings, but this decade with the decline of pureblood rhetoric they've started to gain a lot of interest"  
Maurice sighed "It's not that I don't approve but I didn't expect to get involved in politics so soon, I'm eleven!"  
"You've kept up so far haven't you, It's not like you'll get a choice though, with the way things have been going if our generation doesn't care we'll end up backsliding at least that's what my aunt says"  
"Politics" Maurice groaned in belated agreement, his initial curiosity of the magical world had resulted in a bit of a bibliophile phase and while Maurice didn't have an eidetic memory like Sue he remembered important stuff when it came up.  
Just then the Professor Aurora Sinistra arrived.  
"Hello students I am Professor Sinistra firstly I want to apologize for the timetabling error we actually start at 20 minutes past 4, I don't expect you to sprint from the basement to the top of the highest tower in Hogwarts carrying telescopes. Today we'll go over assembly and maintenance of telescopes but first a short introduction to astronomy."  
Professor Sinistra walked over to a cupboard and levitated out over a dozen voluminous large beanbags and setting them all in a large circle around the floating planetarium.  
"Pick a seat students and we'll begin"  
"I like this class already" muttered Maurice to Susan sinking into a bean bag next to her.  
Once settled Professor Sinistra pointed her wand toward the spinning gyroscope simultaneously causing it to light up and for blackout curtains to fall around the balcony.  
"Astronomy, the study of the celestial array, the vast expanse of space and the limitless universe as an entity. On its own one can use it for navigation even under the strongest of wards as unlike compasses or navigation spells the light of the stars cannot be altered or obscured by any magic known to man. When combined with potions one can create and empower powerful elixirs, when combined with runes one can create spells that endure for hundreds of years, combined with Arithmancy one can even divine the future, Alchemy requires it. Spell creation begins and ends with astronomy knowing what constellation a spell was created under will increase its power when cast."  
A wand movement and the ceiling erupted into stars one started to glow blue at Professor Sinistra prompting. "Sirius A, the brightest star visible from Earth physical light spells like Lumos have been tied to the light of this star since the dawn of time when ancient mankind named it as the brightest star in the sky. Only when you can locate and identify the real stars will you be able to incorporate them into your spells and enchantments. In the future you may come across a spell with an unknown astrological tie, that is simply because the star or constellation was unrecorded or the knowledge was lost to history. As astrologers, it's our job to rediscover those celestial ties or forge new ones."  
The lesson went so well that the entire class was startled when a third-year Ravenclaw intruded "Sorry to interrupt Professor but our timetable.."  
Professor Sinistra pulled herself out of her beanbag and checked the time with a spell "Mr. Jordan? Gracious is that the time already? First years its time to pack up now I'm afraid we've overrun a little that's my next class outside" the room slowly illuminated with the gyroscope dimming though the curtains remained closed.  
Maurice mutinously stretched and slumped back into the beanbag which as he'd discovered by chance had a build-in-warming charm for cold weather Susan rolled her eyes at Maurice's act and calmly turfed the bluenet onto the floor earning a betrayed look.  
Professor Sinistra chuckled "To be young again"  
Lee Jordan didn't chuckle he just rolled his eyes and muttered "Before or after you tagged the beanbags with anti-theft charms?"

On the way back to the common room to return their telescopes and books, Maurice stretched "Well we've got three hours till curfew at 8 what do you want to do"  
The first-year Slytherin with black hair and blue eyes spoke up "Why don't we go to the lake? My name is Sophie"  
"Maurice"  
"Susan, you didn't see it earlier today?"  
Sophie shook her head "There was a mix up in Slytherin common rooms with the luggage, the whole house spent the day fixing things up all hands on board really I didn't get the chance to explore at all"  
Maurice nodded with a grin plucking the telescope from Susan's hands "Let's not waste time then I'll get these to our common room in no time flat" for the first time that day Maurice revved leaving an afterimage and wind shear that ruffling Susan and Sophie's hair into a frizzy mess and leaving them gaping in amazement.  
"Did.. Did you know he could do that?" spoke Roger as he wrestled his hair back into compliance.  
"He said he could run fast using controlled accidental magic when he was younger, I thought he was exaggerating…" Susan gazed after the blur trailing off thoughtfully.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A narrow escape, teachers commiseration night and something shady.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

Hogwarts Lake 5:15 pm Monday  
Roger skipped a stone on the calm waters of the black lake as Sophie and Susan sat at the waterside, Maurice was grinning fresh from another loop around the black lake.  
Sophie shone a beam of light off the water looking at the fish skirting about in the rocks "So how did you find the classes?"  
Maurice piped up "Bring a pillow to History the only thing you're going to do in that class is sleep, Hey Sue did you manage to get that pass from Flitwick?"  
Susan smiled "Flitwick says he'll schedule the OWL testing next week to give me time to read some history books, apparently I'm not the only student who's had perfect memory to test up in theory"  
"Wow! You're going the blitz all the theory stuff we're doing!" Sophie's admiration and envy were clear.  
"What did you mean, sleeping in history class? I mean I thought it was a bit dull but not as bad as you seem to find it" Roger asked Maurice who grimaced and just sighed "I felt like my brain was dribbling out my ears"  
To Rogers surprise Susan who he'd judged the more serious of the duo nodded fervently in agreement "So glad I'm going to be done with that class soon" Maurice skipped a stone at the lake "You promised to tutor me as I'm the one who gave you the idea"  
"I doubt it's going to stay that bad, maybe Binn's had a bad day?" spoke Sophie doubtfully.  
Maurice shook his head at Sophie's optimism "You're going to hate it, Defence though... that's my favorite so far, Kill it with fireee, my students!" Maurice faux cheered with his arms waving in the air.  
Susan started giggling "Maurice stop! I'm going to laugh myself sick remembering!"  
At Roger and Sophie's confused look Maurice explained with a grin "As first years we can't use complicated powerful magic, but setting things on fire is a first-year charm"  
"Sounds interesting?" Spoke Roger hesitantly unsure if the duo were joking or not. Sounded fun though.  
"So what is Potions like? You had that class before us" asked Susan turning to the two Slytherins.  
Roger shrugged "We ended up doing a risk assessment of the classroom and checking everyone's cauldrons then we got a list of spells to prevent sabotage and splashback from potions, next lesson we're learning about ingredient interaction"  
Sophie nodded "It's an interesting subject but it looks like it gets complicated real fast."  
Behind the group, the bushes lining the forbidden forest rattled ominously startling the group into silence.  
"It's probably dinner time soon we should go" spoke Sophie not taking her eyes off the brush.  
The entire group could feel a multitude of gazes on them Maurice made a motion to turn and investigate but found his arm tightly gripped by Susan "Maurice?"  
The blunet met Susan's gaze and examined her somewhat fixed expression "yeah.. let's make like a tree and leaf"  
Much muted groaning ensued.

Great Hall 6:00 pm  
"Why do I feel like we just had a narrow escape back there?" muttered Sophie with a shiver.  
Roger scowled "We probably did, it is called the Forbidden Forest for a reason"  
"I thought they had wards up to stop anything nasty coming out?" spoke Susan.  
Maurice sighed as if reciting something from memory "There aren't any, its centaur territory and they usually keep the wildlife contained"  
"How do you know that?" spoke Roger skeptically.  
"I had a look around from the Hogsmeade side before term its very dark in there I only stayed there for about a minute"  
"Scared?" Roger asked mildly with an implied taunt but without heat.  
Maurice scoffed "You wish, I just don't see the point of staying somewhere I can't run without breaking my legs for the dark"  
The group separated drifting towards their house tables Susan masked a yawn as she sat next to Maurice "Tired already?"  
Susan nodded slightly "It's been a long day"  
Maurice spotted a steaming jug of hot chocolate and poured himself a mug, gulping it down like water to calm his nerves.  
"Are you going to make it back to the common room?"  
"Ask me after dessert" Susan drawled flatly, serving a copious volume of chocolate stalagmite from the dessert platter.

Ravenclaw Tower 6:20 pm  
"Why is a raven like a writing desk?"  
Maurice stared at the knocker blankly "What"  
Susan answered for him "Because it can produce a few notes, though they are very flat; and it is never put with the wrong end in front."  
At Maurice's questioning look Susan blushed "Alice in Wonderland was my favorite story when I was little."  
"I still don't get it" he stated flatly eyeing the knocker suspiciously even as it swung inwards.  
"How did you get in earlier without me then?"  
The following statement also flatly given "I followed a sixth year"  
"You are going to have to solve the riddles yourself at some point"  
"I'll leave a window open" grumbled Maurice slumping down into an armchair convinced the knocker had it out for him.

Staffroom, ground-floor 10:00pm  
"Yer a lifesaver Pomona" rasped McGonagall accepting a large mug of hot toddy.  
"I try" spoke Professor Sprout in a faux snooty voice as dry as the Kalahari Desert idly placing the platter of drinks and biscuits on the central table.  
"I don't see why you're so tired Minerva, Some of us were actually teaching today" snarked Professor Kettleburn.  
Equally, snarky the Scotswoman retorted "Bite yer tongue! Hae ye even seen howfur muckle paperwork ah hae tae dae fur schuil maintenance noo, th' boord, 'n' th' business wi' th' brooms? "  
"Well my 5th years seem to have forgotten absolutely everything about brewing over the holidays" grumped Slughorn "Mr. Wynch nearly liquidized himself and five other students whilst Mr. Brunt decided to burn his eyebrows off and don't even ask me what Mr. Meakin did, boys got a sordid future in the Unspeakable's at the rate he's going" Slughorn helped himself to a mug of mulled wine to calm his nerves.  
A beat of silence passed in quiet the fireplace happily crackling away.  
"So, impressions of the new first years?" prompted McGonagall.  
Ignatius spoke first "Great bunch, very willing to learn"  
Lucretia snorted "Ignatius, You told them to set everything on fire, of course they were willing to learn!"  
Ignatius merely smirked into his drink.  
"How was your class Lucretia I never got the chance to pop in" interrupted McGonagall foreseeing some couples bickering ahead.  
"Quite good I managed to sufficiently imprint the dangers of improper transfiguration in their minds so we should have less transfigured messes to clean up this year"  
"Don't count on it" murmured the thoroughly jaded Madam Poppy Pomfrey darkly, because honestly the things Hogwarts students got up to just defied belief, this matron had seen things.  
"I for one thought the first years were very attentive" demurred Sinistra.  
Rolanda huffed "Yes well, You cheat with that enchanted planetarium, how much of the budget went into that again?"  
Sinistra sniffed "I'll have you know Rubeus contributed quite heavily to its construction"  
Horace smiled misty-eyed "The man had such a large supply of rare potion ingredients lying around it seemed a travesty to let it go to waste, I simply helped him find the right buyers, for a small commission of course."  
"And no doubt made out like a bandit in the process" added Poppy dryly earning a scowl from the potions professor.  
"Do you know when he'll be coming back, Minerva?" Asked Silvanus.  
McGonagall leaned back in her seat "Well he's in Eastern Europe last I checked touring the dragon preserves, he's been our groundskeeper for over forty or so years the mans earned himself a wee break"  
Ignatius raised a mug "Here's to hoping the man doesn't return with one of the beasties"  
"Way to jinx it, hope the dragon eats you first" Professor Babbling muttered earning laughter.

England 11:55 pm  
Ministry of Magic, Level 2, Improper Use of Magic Office  
The unknown wizard smirked under his invisibility cloak as his wand ever so gently altered the warding enchantment anchored to the stone in front of him making it flash a light purple before returning to its former blue hue appearing unaltered.  
The wizard raised a small unusual looking hand mirror inscribed with runes to his face, "Bull reporting to Ogre in position, ready when you are"

France  
Ministère De La Magie, Level 3, Bureau Magique Inapproprié  
Like in England another disguised figure sat lounging on an office seat in front of a similar-looking ward as if a cat and observing their own mirror "This is Cat reporting to Ogre in position and ready to go"

Germany  
Ministerium für Magie, Level 5, Eingeschränkte Magie  
As in England and France, a third likewise disguised figure sat stood tense in front of another ward observing his own enchanted mirror "This is Opossum reporting to Ogre in position and ready and waiting"

In an Unknown Location  
A massive mirror made of at least a hundred smaller mirrors sat resplendent across the wall like a large cinema screen in a theatre, archaic runic carving looped around the walls like vines and in each and every mirror faces were visible hundreds of people reporting in.  
A figure sat obscured in shadows gazing at all the faces in the mirror expressionlessly its eyes burning a pitiless red, Everything was coming together and much sooner than they had thought it would, finding that person in Azkaban had been a blessing in disguise. In Azkaban, they had found a new lieutenant plagued by a genius mind and woefully underutilized.  
Given unlimited resources and free reign this new lieutenant had brought the plan forward by 35 years at the very least, Now it was time to turn plan into action, a finger snap spurned the lieutenant into action.  
In front of the figure in the throne standing in front of the mirror mosaic on a raised platform with greasy grey-brown hair, intimidating black eyes and faded pock-marked skin stood someone who should have by all rights still have been imprisoned in Britain's Azkaban Prison in maximum security yet here he was, Augustus Rookwood stood proudly and clearly spoke "All operatives are in position, this is Ogre to all operatives, Begin Operation Hidebound on my mark"  
The figure in the throne remained tense if even one of the operatives messed this up the second attempt would be much, much harder.  
"Now!"  
The mirrors lit up bright red for over a minute as every person in the mirror simultaneously cast their spells in places all over the world.  
After the light faded "Has it worked?"  
Rookwood waved a wand over the podium casting a silent spell "We are successful"  
Muted exclamations of excitement were heard from the mirrors.  
"Gentlemen" the figure in the darkness spoke.  
The room went abruptly silent in deference of their leader "We have a year to get everything in place, a year before anyone notices anything is wrong, use it wisely, you each know your assignments, Dismissed!"


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shady doings did not go undetected, We see some of what Dumbledore is up to, Hogwarts has a relatively normal school day and Ronald Weasley inadvertently makes some enemies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

Tuesday  
England 5:55 pm

Ministry of Magic, Level 1, Minister for Magic's office  
Minister Amelia Bones was having an odd day, it wasn't a particularly bad one just a bit odd, after all, how often did she have the head of the espionage division of the Unspeakable's in her office first thing in the morning?  
Amelia looked skeptical "So you're saying that someone has infiltrated several Ministries simultaneously and possibly made away with sensitive information"  
The unidentifiable Unspeakable nodded "South African, Mexico, Australia, Germany, Bulgaria and Russia according to our investigations, the disturbance in all six countries happened at the same time and were carried out in a very professional manner"  
This implied a highly organized criminal group with a goal that required classified government information, Amelia could already hear the ICW squawking from here.  
"If they were professionally done how do we even know the events were linked?"  
The Unspeakable seemed to sag in place a bit "The only reason we know about these events is because people died in the actual ministry buildings and all of them were murdered with the exact same unknown spell providing a link which suggests an organized effort"  
Amelia was almost afraid to ask "What sort of spell was it?"  
The Unspeakable sighed "As far as we can tell the spell transfigured people into crude oil which untransfigured itself atom by atom at timed intervals as it oozed about the floor"  
Amelia shuddered violently at such a nasty way to go "Tests also indicate that the victims were alive and fully conscious the entire time if not in pain"  
Steeling herself from that grim tidbit Amelia asked "What information was taken?"  
The unspeakable shifted almost uneasily "We don't know"  
Amelia startled "What do you mean you don't know surely you must have a small idea at least?" After the Japanese Inbo Division, the British Unspeakable's had invented most of the spying, scrying and other Orwellian surveillance spells and enchantments currently in use. At least the former oligarchy had some uses Amelia mused darkly, not many but some at least.  
"Minister we were lucky enough to be able to link these acts together in the first place! As it is we currently have a squad investigation our own ministry on the suspicion that we were also infiltrated and not so sloppily"  
Some days it just didn't pay to get up in the morning Amelia sighed internally "Keep me updated and do try to get a message to Dumbledore, I know he's a bit busy with the ICW taskforce at the moment-"

With the ICW Taskforce in a unknown location…  
"COVER FIRE!"  
*Ballistic shriek*

ị̖̦̬̝̦̻̭͚ͯ͛̀ͯ̔̀W̦̻̬̲̾͋͌͐̉͐̈ì̴͈̯͎̟̥͚͔ͧͦͯ̈́L̏͌ͦͦ͗́ͣͭ̚͢͏̖̗͕͎l̴͚͍ͣͪ̂ͫ͌̎́E̴̶̥̠̲̱̺͚͙͂́a̵̠͔̻̮̜̻͌̆ͯͯ̒̍̚T͂͊̓̇͏̛̯̟͇̥̮̮̙y̷̴̘͓͉̟͇̮̫͑ͬ̾̓O̳͓͉̘͓̥͇ͫ̕uͬ͊҉̸̞͇͙̖R͆̈̔̈ͧͩ͏̶̤͡ͅf̶̟̘̪̪́̅͂̾ͤͅḀ̶̡͐̒̐̈́ͨ̉͋c̨̖̺͓̜͙̙͋ͭ̆ͮ̑ͧ̈́͌E̛̓͋ͨ̒́̎̿̿͏̖̩̹̻̫̥ą͖̲̲͔ͤͣͯŅ̵̺̯͚͈̖̘̄͆̋͜ͅd̷̞͇̳̜͕̺͕̱̆̑ͭ̏ͅY͙͕͉̓͑͢õ̖̩̻͋̾ͬ͗̉́̾ͩ͘U̹̺͙̦͇͖̹͎ͯ̈r̹̤̣͔̱̹͔͊̌͆̇ͣ̊̕C̋̈́ͦ̏́͏̗h̺̟̠̞̊͌̋ͣ̀̚İ̻̮̼͕̮̫̘̀̕l͎̣̥̪̫͕̱̘̺ͧ̉̄͂͐ͩ̉̚͡͡D̸͚͇͇̪͈̞̲ͫ̔́r̟͉͖͈̹͈̙̽ͅE̷̸̶̠̱̱̠͚̤̻̘̾ͭ̇͑n̺̝̰̯͇̮͎͕̐ͯ̽͞!̬̘̭̞̈̿ͩ̍ͅ!̴̟̥̜̖͖̻̂̍͑̌ͯ͆͂ͤ

"WHY DOES IT HAVE TENTACLES?!" Screeched one wizard shrill and indignant.  
*Explosions*

͛͐̄͏̯̝̼ͅŢ̗̗͊ͤ̊̾̈́ͩ̇͟͟hͫ͌ͤͥ̾͋́̚͝҉̞̖̲̪̦̱E͈̗͚̲̯̥ͤ̅̚e͙̖̭̬͚͙ͬ͗ͧ̔N̈́ͤ̐̓̌̍̇҉̷̵̜̯͖̗̫̝͎d̻̱̫̯̗̫̭͊͒̽̀͡H̛̙̖̞̥̦ͨ͗̆́à͕̪͖̯̟̝̟ͦ̐͠Sͪ҉̡͚̣͚̯͖̪̱͡ͅć̙͕̀ͅO̩̞̤͍̯̱͍ͫ̀́͡͠ͅm̶̢̟̮̼͔͗̎̎͐͐Ě̶͚̗̺̫͂ͭͩͩ̍ͮ͌f̴̡̘̙̖̮̥̠͎̩̫̈́̐͜Ȯ͉̻͇͚͙̒̌͐̏͗͝͡ͅr͍̺̝̠̝ͯ̍ͨ̉ͦ͛ͅͅY̨̗̠̦͔̻̪̙̣̜͌̂ͥ̑o̠͖̣̺̦̹͈̖͉͛͟U̥̫̳̪ͥ̑̅̄̑͋͗̀́͘!̤̤̫̉͋̓ͤ̔̇̄̔͛͜͝!̨͈͖͛ͬ͠!̬̻̌͝

"ALL THE BETTER TO DO HORRIBLE THINGS TO PEOPLE'S BODIES WITH IF WE FAIL!" singsonged Albus Dumbledore at the top of his voice no power or concentration to spare on a sonorous voice charm as he flung spell after spell into the fray.  
*Screeching*

d̲̺̖̣̤̥͌̈̂͂̚͜͠I̡̞̣͉ͩ͑̌̌ͨ͝ͅë̫̲̤̪̳̪̪͕D̴̩͉̯̈̾ͣ̐̕i̢̨̹͍̜͂͠E̘̅ͬͩͧ̊ͬͪd̷͍̗̼̞̞̲̖̤̉ͮ̾̄̽ͯ̚Ỉ̶̥͕ͨ͟ẹ̷̦̺̰̗̻͕̮̱ͥ͐̾͑̑͊ͨ̋͢D̴̶̩̣̳̗̟͚͗̒͒̄̚͡i̷̮̘̝̣ͧ̇ͦ́Ě̙̣̟͔̦̟̪̫̪̔̐d̵͈̲̥ͭ̀͟Iͮͧͯͣ̔̀҉̯̰e̴͔ͯ̓̐͑ͬ̇̚͡Ḏ̢̘͉̳͛̏͆̓͐ͭį̲͙̘ͬ̋ͭͤ͐ͯ̋̎̚E̫̼̙ͧ͂̈́̽͋̌͛ͮ̀͢͞ͅdͬͧ͒͏̸̳̙̮̲̙͉͞I̡͕̭̙̤̠̟̫͇ͦ̆̎ͨͯ̀̀͌ͅe̩͎̥͓͇̪̙̠ͪͧͮ̾̉ͬD̞̠̰̩̏̌ͮ͊̀iͧ̍҉̟̗͔E̍̅͋̇͢͏͓̥͙̩͔̖ͅd̸̲́ͣ͌Ì̼̗̻̖̥̙̖̣̼͋̄̔̾̃ͤ͋͟͞ȇ̛͉͚͇̝̼̺̦͔̺̂D̳͕̙͖̻̗̯͔̚í̇ͣ̋ͬ҉҉̨̲͖Ȩ̞ͦ̿d̝̺̹ͨͥ̇͛̈̅̆̀Ḭ̵̬̬̲ͩͥ̎͊͆͂̇̏ͅĕ̡̢͓̩͙̖͓̺̍̊ͯͅ!̰͎̹̳͎̣̑̓̅̀!̶̦͙̣̲̹̹̇̿ͣͅ!̨̞̙̓̑͢͡!̛̝͚̞̱͖̖̙ͬ̓͊̉͋͗̅

Very fire, much brimstone, like wow.

England  
Ministry of Magic, Level 1, Minister for Magic's office  
"-but he usually has something useful and insightful to say" Amelia finished speaking.

Hogwarts, Charms w/ Gryffindor Room 2E  
Carefully guiding the invisible streams of magic into the vase Maurice watched as the patterned birds on the vase began to move slowly, without using a wand precision charms were not easy, Maurice visualized his magic as strings extending from his wrist…  
"Ack!" Susan giggled as Maurice lost his thread of concentration and the vase and the desk abruptly became patterned with flapping birds against a blue sky backdrop looking quite odd and headache-inducing.  
Susan's own work had an image of a tree its leaves rustling in an unseen wind and if you looked close enough there were squirrels darting about in the branches. "That's quite brilliant work, the both of you even if you got the desk too Mr. Bluewind it's a huge improvement over before" observed the professor. Maurice acknowledged the professor's complement "Yeah, I think I'm starting to get the hang of it professor" Flitwick nodded "Continue to improve, now can anyone tell me what's wrong with these two vases"  
No one replied so Flitwick prompted "Imagine you buy one of these vases and take it home and per se put it on your windowsill or your kitchen?"  
A Ravenclaw timidly raised a hand "If you put it on a window Muggles might see it move?"  
"One good point but what's the other? Anyone?"  
One of the student's pets, a cat walked up to Maurice's vase and pounced at one of the fluttering birds sending the vase crashing to the floor only to be caught in a levitation spell by Flitwick "As the cat just demonstrated its too realistic, impressive and quite funny though, I'll be putting a sign-up board in the common rooms for those who want to try their hands at wizarding portraiture creation and visual animation charms"  
On the other side of the classroom, Ronald carefully added color to the rooster in the orchard on his own vase, the grass rippling like water with the wind. Exactly as he'd remembered it back home.

Potions w/ Hufflepuff (Dungeons LVT)  
The dungeons were surprisingly airy and well lit granted they had a lot of snake imagery in portraits, statues and carvings winding around the hallways but it didn't look as uninviting as it might have sounded. Standing outside the classrooms with Susan and the Hufflepuffs he took the time to survey the other house and for a minute saw double "Susan I'm seeing double" She followed his gaze and blinked "The Patil twins, I've got Padma in the dorm next to mine she usually has her nose in a book she tends to snap at anyone who bugs her"  
Entering the classroom Maurice was surprised by the cleanliness of the room, it was well lit with glowing stones embedded in the walls.  
Professor Slughorn gestured at the desks "Take a seat students today we'll be going over the do's and don't of Potionering" you could hear the capital P in his voice.  
"In this class, we will learn the noble art of potions with which we can cure diseases, save lives and turn people we don't like into suitably embarrassing animals"  
More than one student did a double-take at that comment "However that is conditional upon passing this class, untested potions that don't meet the quality standard will be banned from use. Each potion you brew with your own ingredients is yours to keep provided its been examined by myself, sign up sheets for supervised brewing sessions outside of lab time will be posted in your common rooms as well as a few lists of recommended reading, we will have a minor crossover with the Herbology classes regarding ingredient harvesting and I expect you all to pay attention"  
That night Susan and Maurice sat in the Ravenclaw library next to a window with a pile of books next to them Maurice looked somewhat aghast at the pile of recommended reading while Susan looked unbearably smug.  
"This is going to be nightmarish isn't it?" The question was only slightly rhetorical so Maurice answered himself while Susan looked on in amusement "Stuck in a small room with little to no ventilation or natural sunlight while manhandling semi-dead ingredients into a bubbling cauldron for hours on end" Maurice shivered in place and a laughing Susan remorselessly plonked a book in front of him. "You start reading I'll quiz you after the first chapter"

Wednesday Herbology w/ Slytherin 10:45 am  
"Greetings students I am Professor Sprout today we'll be introduced to Herbology for the semester, each student will pick a plant to base a project around for a month however today we will be studying a magical plant"  
Sprout levitated a large pot full of white flowers onto the desk "Now who knows what this is?"  
"It's a flower called Moly, when its petals are white and its stem and leaves are black the flower can be eaten to counteract dark magic its also classified as a herb and a common ingredient in the Wiggenweld Potion"  
"Correct Miss Bones, now for the first lesson we are growing these from seed, the very nature of Herbology necessitates a schedule around each growing phase as each thing you plant can be cared for in stages so we'll plant this plant and store it in one of the greenhouses to let it grow while studying other plants in the meantime. Once planted them we'll water them in rotations and come back to these in five weeks for the next stage of plant care incidentally the average Herbologist has over thirty to forty plants in various stages of growth at any one time. Its time consuming but very rewarding"  
Maurice idly boggled at how many times she used the word 'plant' and mentally crossed Herbologist off his list of future careers.

Thursday Potions Gryffindor & Slytherin (Dungeons LVT) 10:48 am  
It would take precision timing if he wanted to pull this off but it would be hilarious, just as Slughorn turned and no one was looking there was a splash as a bundle of porcupine quills, thrown across the classroom landing with a splash in Sally Smith's cauldron. The girl shrieked as the potion promptly exploded all over her. Slughorn near vaulted over to her levitating and vanishing the liquid revealing the now pink-skinned, blonde-haired girl having her now black eyes carefully scanned by Professor Slughorn.  
The class burst into laughter right up until the professor turned a furious gaze onto the class "Which one of you utter fools did that! If you were one of my upper years and this wasn't your first lesson I'd have you all expelled for doing something so utterly hair-brained! If this had been literally any other potion you'd have killed us all, we are all unspeakably lucky that that only exploded and didn't become some sort of garrotting gas or just incinerate us all in a giant fireball!"  
Slughorn briefly thought he'd gone too far with that but decided he probably hadn't gone far enough and took a deep breath ready to thoroughly impress upon the class how stupid such an action was in a brewing environment…

Black Lake 1:00 pm  
Susan laughed loudly from her place on Maurice's back as the wind roared by, holding tightly as Maurice circled the lake.  
"STOP DOING THAT!" Maurice came to a halt at the call with a confused exclamation of "Huh? What I do?" the person who had yelled, apparently a third year, marched up from the small harbor "Your running is wrecking my enchantments!"  
Maurice blinked "Um, Sorry?  
Susan dropped down from Maurice's back "But why are you testing here and not somewhere else?"  
The third-year looked infuriated "Where else?! You run everywhere! And everywhere you're not at there's always someone else being nosy! I've had it up to here with all this interference!"  
The third-year drew his wand and pointed it directly down.  
Susan spotted it before Maurice who froze gaze darting from the third year to the wooden pier he, Maurice was standing on "Oh no"  
With a smugly uttered "Flipendo" the pier tilted abruptly spilling Maurice off into the shallow lake water with a splash.  
Susan gazed at the sputtering Maurice now soaking wet having avoided the same drenching by mere inches. The third-year snickered loudly and marched off.  
"Well, he seemed reasonable" Susan smirked pulling Maurice to his feet where he dusted himself off with a "Tergeo" to remove the lake water followed by a "Scourgify" to remove the now dried dirt.  
"More like a complete knucklehead" Maurice snarked bitterly stalking back to the castle.  
"Where are you going?" Susan asked, Maurice gripped a handful of his frizzy blue hair and informed Susan dryly "A shower and an appointment with an impenetrable charm.. or eight"  
Susan viciously repressed her amusement "Can you even use that on hair?"  
"Watch me" Maurice harrumphed and stalked off, wounded pride in tow.  
Susan was quite convinced that this would end badly and resolved to look up the hair re-growth potion for when Maurice inevitably burnt his hair off, but that wasn't quite what happened to her surprise.

Ravenclaw Dormitory, Maurice's Room 3:00 pm  
"What"  
Maurice looked up from admiring his hair in the mirror grinning "I have made my hair Impenetrable" to Susan the emphasis on the word impenetrable implied some sort of spell.  
"How?" The lengths her surprisingly vain best friend went to in the name of his hair Susan thought were quite ridiculous though the number of hair care potions in his trunk had clued her in on Maurice's vanity days ago.  
Maurice began listing the spells he'd used on himself "A containment charm to keep my hair in the shape I want, a sticking charm so I don't shed hair anymore, a feather-light charm so I can run easier, a waterproofing spell to make it waterproof, a cushioning charm to repel anything from sticking to my hair and a locking charm to make the spell permanent" He looked so pleased with himself as he continued listing spells that Susan almost regretted dragging him to Flitwick.

Flitwick's Office  
Keyword being almost, Maurice had pouted the whole way to Flitwick's office, it was hilarious.  
"Really Mr. Bluewind these spells were never meant to be used in such a way I can point out several side effects already."  
Maurice bit his lip as Flitwick began to list everything he's done wrong or right.  
"Firstly you will never need another haircut, it's going to grow into that predefined shape like a square watermelon in a glass box, You'll never need to wash it and you could add an Extension Charm to this it's certainly stable enough"  
"I could have hammerspace?" chirped Maurice eyes suspiciously bright Flitwick chuckled "Perhaps when you are older it is a 7th-year charm after all and heavily regulated although you could get yourself an extended pouch and tie it in with a bauble until then"  
"So basically he hasn't managed to injure himself?" Questioned Susan hesitantly.  
"Good gracious no, Intent can twist a spell slightly and you knew exactly what you wanted didn't you Mr. Bluewind?" Maurice nodded "However-" and now Maurice had a sinking feeling as Flitwick's face turned stern "-until the spell frame been completely filled with hair I'd suggest not letting it get completely saturated with water the weight would hamper your running quite a bit" The unsaid 'and make you sink like a stone' made Maurice grimace right before he abruptly grinned "Does that mean I can hit people with my hair?"  
Susan gave in to the impulse that had been bugging her all day and facepalmed to the sound of Flitwick's riotous laughter.  
There was a well and truly awful joke in that statement but Susan was just too done to puzzle it out.

Ravenclaw Dormitory, Maurice's Room  
Pouring over the books in front of him Maurice sighed allowing himself to slump briefly against the table for a minute before steeling himself and pulling a random book towards himself. Seated on the windowsill next to him on a large plushy cushion Susan lounged with her feet on his table reading through a green book Maurice couldn't see the cover of.  
"Having fun?"  
"Yeah sure" grumbled Maurice as he perused the astronomy book's summary.  
"Hey did you know Scottish wizards used to catch falling rocks in a cauldron strapped to their heads whilst on brooms, they called it Creaothceann"  
Maurice paused in browsing his astronomy text to look at Susan "That sounds suicidal"  
"Scottish wizards thought it was manly and a symbol of courage?" Susan thought she heard Maurice mutter something, the word mainland stood out.  
"What you reading?"  
Maurice squinted at the book "Astronomy, don't suppose you know if we can use shooting stars in this can we?"  
"Not unless you can recite off the top of your head where the star is in the galaxy at the exact moment in relation to other stars and planets at that moment every time you cast the spell and what are you eating?"  
Maurice pushed the bowl over to Susan "Moly?"  
Maurice shrugged "Prof Sprout let us try some at the end of the lesson remember? I've started growing it in my window box and ordering it from Hogsmeade"  
Susan blinked "Why?"  
"Because it's delicious" Maurice stated flatly, that and eating enough of something magical could shore up some of the effects in the person eating it, though mostly because it really was that delicious.

Gryffindor Tower, First Year Boys Dormitory 7:00 pm

Ron forced himself to be quiet as he sat on his bed with the curtains spelled shut, hex marks spiraling around his arms, legs and back. He hadn't known that potions were that dangerous, at home his mother tended to balance the cauldron on the kitchen hob as she brewed right next to where she cooked occasionally in tandem. In hindsight throwing that bundle of porcupine quills had been quite stupid, originally Ron had intended to open the year with a prank to signify his intention to fill his older brothers pranking shoes now that they'd given up. It had been amusing at the beginning but upon learning that he'd nearly killed everyone and himself by accident Ron had decided not to claim responsibility, social suicide that it was. Unfortunately just because he'd kept quiet didn't mean he hadn't been spotted, Michael Corner had watched him throw the potion ingredient and although also initially amused, upon realizing the danger he'd been in informed his other roommates.  
Theodore Nott was not the quiet tolerable loner Ron had assumed, in fact upon learning who had put his life in danger he's become quite vicious, the second Ron had made it back to their dorm room and the door had closed behind him all four boys under the direction of Theodore Nott had unleashed a barrage of stinging hexes at the redhead as well as cursing him into silence in the aftermath.  
Hogwarts was supposed to be the best years of his life where he could stand out as more than just another Weasley but now Ron had the feeling that for the next seven years he would stand out in a far less positive way.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ron Weasley is motivated to be a better student than in canon and flying lessons almost happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

Friday  
Hogwarts Library 9:00 am  
It was 9:00 am in the morning, Ronald Weasley acknowledged that his brothers would have a heart attack at the fact that their lazy little brother was up so early. He had swallowed his pride and gone to his brother first thing in the morning about his hexing last night but Percy had rapidly proven himself quite useless telling him that he was overreacting and to stop causing trouble. With the prefect option out, tarnishing his opinion of authority in the process and his roommate's malice promising gazes from last night featuring prominently in his nightmares all last night Ronald Weasley had sought another way out.  
Arrayed on the table next to him were several books such as Self-Defensive Spellwork, A Compendium of Common Curses and Their Counter-Actions, and Charms of Defence and Deterrence one of which would hopefully contain a few helpful spells to protect himself with. Forget pranking the school Ron would have a hard enough time staying ahead of his dorm mates.

Great Hall – 11:00 am  
Maurice and Susan sat at the end of the great hall nearest the doors a slow draft from the doors keeping the two cool in the face of the sunshine, two brooms finally returned after a long inspection lain out on the table as well as a box full of miscellaneous items.  
Miscellaneous because Maurice had no clue what some of the oddly shaped and labeled things were for "So why clippers? I thought the twigs were all enchanted so wouldn't clipping them damage the spells?"  
Even as she pruned the broomstick Susan patiently explained to the baffled bluenet "Because part of the magic on flying brooms means the bristles still grow but the new growth isn't enchanted and is leeching off the magic of the broom to grow at all."  
Susan pointed out the green on the tip of one bristle to Maurice who nodded in understanding before asking another question.  
"Why use wood then?"  
"Because the flying enchantments used don't mix with the weightless charm and the wood used in broom crafting is lightweight already and very cheap."  
Maurice just looked at the booms "Seems a whole lot of trouble"  
"So why did you buy a broom then?" asked Susan unscrewing a bottle of wax polish.  
Maurice wrinkled his nose at the smell eyeing the bottle "Because it's the wizarding world, it's expected and it was on the list"  
"A Nimbus 2000 is a top of the line racing broom" Susan pointed out idly.  
Maurice shrugged eyeing the assortment of broom care items with mild disgust "It seemed like a good idea at the time but now I realized it's probably a bit like owning a car" picking up a small jar of boom polish Maurice pointedly examined the expiry date on the label a week after its purchase date.  
"You don't have to do maintenance but if you do it'll last much longer and for the price you paid for it that's is well worth it"  
Maurice shrugged unconvinced "I got it at a discount actually, you can use it whenever, it's just going to get dusty in my trunk for how often I'll use it"  
"Well anyway" Susan passed the freshly polished broom into bluenet's un-resisting hands "Even if you only use it for practice and prefer running it's a good emergency escape route"  
Maurice couldn't argue with that.

Madam Rolanda Hooch smiled warmly at the sight before her, arrayed on the ground in formation there were thirty Nimbus 2000s, in mint condition! Suffice to say Rolanda had thoroughly enjoyed watching Devlin Whitehorn founder of the Nimbus Racing Broom Company tear the Hogwarts Board of Governors to metaphorical shreds over the wireless blaming them wholesale for the relatively poor showings and lack of talent from Hogwarts Alumni in the last forty years because they were being cheap!  
Madam Hooch had been teaching flying at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for 20 years when the aftermath of an ill-made animagus potion which boosted her eyesight to that of a hawk and forevermore barred her from playing broom based sports professionally. Unlike most of the staff that had been recruited in previous years by Albus Dumbledore, She had been recruited by a tag team of Professor McGonagall and Madam Poppy Pomfrey both of whom saw the advantage of a hawks eyesight in regards to watching over unruly children learning to fly at dangerous heights.

Fun Fact: Pomfrey once had a similar set of slides to the ones Lucretia had shown in class detailing graphically each and every Quidditch induced injury Hogwarts had ever witnessed. Naturally, they were confiscated by the Board of Governors after that one year when none of the houses could field enough members for a Quidditch team between them and the British Quidditch League talent scouts complained.

This year would be the beginning of something great Madam Rolanda Hooch vowed, this year would see the rise of the next Quidditch stars and she'd be responsible for their rise. Let's see Professor Minerva 'Transfiguration Mastery' McGonagall try to boast about her old students sending her whiskey every Christmas this time! In ten years or so she'd be the one waving tickets for the Quidditch World Cup in her face. Madam Rolanda Hooch, Teacher of Champions!  
The bell rang as her students filtered into the field the second and third years watching nearby or eating their lunch outside whilst the first years began their first flying lesson.

Maurice and Susan stood with the congregation of twenty-five first years of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff denomination, only a few seemed to be actually excited about flying.  
The rest of the first years comprising of Slytherin and Gryffindor sat in the stands of the Quidditch pitch watching the flying lesson.  
"Who do you think is going to fall first?" Sophie sighed hearing the usual suspects, Hannah Abbott and Lavender Brown, try to stir up gossip again, both had adapted poorly to being in Slytherin. Rumors of Abbott's own screaming fit in Professor Slughorn's office with her parents and Headmistress McGonagall and begging to be re-sorted had been strangled before they left the common room despite Brown's best efforts. Slytherin kept a lid on its internal squabbles and bartering rumors and gossip to become popular simply didn't work there, a semi-useful holdover from the prior alumni.  
Roger caught Sophie's gaze in silent commiseration of their seemingly defective housemates, Abbott's dislike of Susan Bones was problematic and very stupid in the long term for Slytherin but mostly for the Abbott girl herself.  
Amelia Bones ruled Wizarding Britain with a velvet-covered fist, a not-quite dictator changing laws and edicts that had been in place since times immemorial, changes of which had led many who previously struggled to thrive. A good example would be the new job openings of which Sophie's own family had benefited from immensely, netting her father a well-paying position as a flying instructor with the Sky Patrol Task Force training hopefuls to join the Ministry's Airborne Wizard Division. Sophie idolized Amelia Bones, Roger knew this from spending a good few hours before their first astronomy class calming the girl down enough to interact with Susan Bones without coming off like an extremely slavish fan.  
Susan Bones had at first been an unknown entity but from what Roger had gathered she had a good head on her shoulders and no obvious bias, her friend Maurice got a nod as his unusual ability to run at incredible speeds which would make him an incredible asset in combat and otherwise.  
In short, the Abbott girl was alienating herself and Brown was in for a harsh reality check, Roger had heard that the prefects were going to set up a meeting with the girls and explain their shortcomings.  
Roger wondered if this was the prelude to the dreaded teenage drama the prefects so bemoaned.

Madam Rolanda Hooch strode confidently between the line of broomsticks gesturing for the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs to line up on either side "Students! Welcome to your first flying lesson, everyone step up to the left side of your broomstick, stick your right hand over your broom and say up"  
Maurice blinked as his broomstick steadily rose to his hand Susan's mirroring his, "Huh, I didn't know this was a thing" Susan responded "I usually just take right off without bothering with this stage at home, it's not like I store my broomsticks horizontally on the ground" Maurice snickered at Susan's quiet observation.  
"With feeling!" Hooch emphasized already she had spotted a few problem students hindered by their lack of confidence.  
"Once you have your broom mount it and none of that silly side saddle stuff, you'll slide right off." The last comment directed to a group of giggling girls about to try just that.  
"When I blow my whistle I want you to kick off from the ground hard in groups of four starting from my side"

Naturally at that moment the first of a clutter of spiders, each the approximate size of a car and larger, sprang out of the trees and tried to eat the students.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maurice acts and is confronted with the definition of heroism, Minister Bones initiates a harsh environmental pest control policy and seemingly nothing of value was lost?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

Susan and Maurice pushed off from the ground hard, rocketing up high out of the giant spider's many-legged reach, followed unanimously by almost every student with a broom in hand. In any other situation, this would have been adequate, not this one. Hundreds of eyes, innate magical resistance, and the sheer size of the spiders themselves enhanced their threat level, most importantly their range.  
One of the Hufflepuffs went down under a hail of ballistic webbing and was immediately set upon by the oversized arachnids, Maurice was diving before he knew what he was doing.  
Close enough to the ground to leap off the broom and into a run, displaced air and noise sent spiders skittering out of his way.  
Scooping the shaking Hufflepuff off of the ground in a princess carry in a fraction of a second and heedless of the blood and webbing Maurice poured on the speed angling straight back to the castle faster than the spiders could react.  
Susan was not idle wand pointed below her "Arania Exumai!" shouting the spider repellent spell repeatedly, jets of light hammered down leaving a bitter waxy smell with each successful impact forcing the spiders back sometimes missing limbs. The students in the stands and the grounds had not been idle and had been casting their own spell barrages to ward off the arachnid invasion, some not so specialized if the screaming madly skittering spiders on fire were anything to go on.

Madam Hooch herself was transfiguring grass into animated ropes breaking spider's legs from her own broom and blasting away at the ground whenever a spider got too close to one of the ground bound students.  
A spider shrieked loudly in agony as its front mandible was unceremoniously lobbed off by a suit of animated armor effortlessly dual-wielding two long swords. Susan paused in her casting to take in the sight of Minerva McGonagall storming down the front steps wand raised and directing what seemed to be every suite of armor in the castle, each armed with what seemed like every sharp weapon in the Hogwarts armory.

At the end of the day no one died although some students had bruises, scratches and the occasional venomous bite, Headmistress McGonagall set all the suits of armor into a guard rotation around the forest's boundary monitored by teachers and volunteers from the seventh years and then called the Ministry.  
Amelia Bones arrived at Hogwarts in style, furious and flanked by three squadrons of Aurors, a dozen healers lead by Healer Hippocrates Smethwyck and several Unspeakable's.  
Then came the examination of the attackers on the front lawn of Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, it wasn't pretty, yelling featured predominantly.

Healer Hippocrates Smethwyck was the mildly furious Healer-in-Charge of St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries and like Poppy Pomfrey, had seen many things in the course of his long career to the point he felt like he'd married the job instead of just working.  
Smethwyck had originally been in charge of one of the wards of St Mungo's that of dangerous creatures, then after a nasty incident involving two rookie Aurors, their prisoner, the prisoners indebted healer friend and a mass poisoning, the entire hospital had undergone massive administrative restructuring.  
Upon being forced to take charge by popular vote Smethwyck had taken a rather spiteful route after decades of being forced to deal with really ignorant isolated wizards who thought inbreeding 'really wasn't all that bad'. He'd blanket copied the Muggle system in place in the Scottish National Health Service, then he'd marched into Amelia Bones Office and told her flatly that the Ministry would fund St Mungos because of her sup-par Aurors actions, or else the entire hospital would go on strike. Considering St. Mungo's serviced the United Kingdoms entire Wizarding World Amelia had allocated the entirety of the funding from the now-defunct Department of Magical Games and Sports. To the criminal elements of Wizarding Britain and the purebloods, this made bribing people to do unscrupulous things such as burying research findings significantly harder. As well as that, Smethwyck had taken an inordinate amount of glee in firing the easily bribed welcome witch who thought patient confidentiality was a medical condition, not an actual hospital doctrine sending her running in tears, no reference was provided.  
Miriam Strout had been recruited as his second in command for her motherly demeanor and ability to cow unruly patients into compliance as well as her competence in ousting under trained healers who paid their way in, whilst Augustus Pye was a new trainee who helped him with his backlog of administrative paperwork i.e. acted like his personal gopher.  
As it was Smethwyck administered wound-healing potion madly suppressing a smirk as Miriam browbeat some of the more unruly students into letting themselves being examined whilst Augustus looked between the two exasperatedly, idly Smethwyck wondered if his healer colleague Omar had placed that bet on when he'd propose to Healer Strout to be Mrs. Smethwyck, his winnings from that pool would fund a rather nice honeymoon in Austria.  
"Smethwyck, if you could examine this, I have a worrying theory that needs a second opinion" Horace Slughorn indeed looked quite worried presenting a purple stone streaked with white and blue thread like material. That looked familiar, unsettlingly so. "Please tell me you didn't get that from one of the Acromantula" Slughorn looked grim "Unfortunately" halfheartedly and almost knowing what he would find Smethwyck scanned the stone with a spell "It's a bezoar approximately thirty years old highly poisonous and comprised entirely of partially digested unicorn meat and Centaur hair suggesting that the Acromantula this specimen came from is native to The Forbidden Forest and has been for at least thirty years as it is the only place in the world both species live in harmony" The Ministry and a great deal of the wizarding world were going to be up in arms about this, it was times like this Smethwyck was glad he was a healer because he didn't envy the Hogwarts staff or Amelia Bones the outrage that would come.

Neville Longbottom was surprised to hear giant spiders had been on Hogwarts grounds having skipped the flying lesson intentionally and had been indoors fiddling around with a portraiture charm guided by George Weasley.  
Ending up in Ravenclaw had been a blessing in disguise for the boy as his grandmother could no longer compare him to his father nor was she hovering over his shoulder. It was also nice to have someone in his corner for once, Filius Flitwick had staged an intervention when he had discovered how far Augusta traditionalism went, forcing Neville to use an incompatible wand. As a former dueling champion Flitwick knew the importance of matched equipment and had been incensed with Augusta, Neville hadn't heard the supposed tirade over the floo but the same evening Flitwick had taken him personally to Carkitt Market in London to a shop called Wands by Gregorovitch, a shop founded by Mykew Gregorovitch a European wandmaker said to have rivaled Ollivander's in his prime. Obtaining a supposedly odd Vine and Unicorn Hair wand that gave off a fountain of pale blue sparks Neville couldn't be happier, then to make a great day even better Flitwick had introduced him to an older student also interested in charms.  
George Weasley could admit that this was the most fun he'd had in a long while teaching the timid little firstie charms though he knew that Flitwick was trying to get him out of the social hole he'd crawled into over the last year.  
"Well seeing as we can't get out or do anything thanks to McG locking down the school, what do you want to do?" It still felt odd to be speaking normally rather than in twinspeak with Fred but after last year he just didn't have the enthusiasm to mingle anymore.  
The first year was painfully shy and clearly needed a confidence boost "I want to learn charms and maybe some enchanting so I can prove I'm not a squib"  
George inwardly shrugged "A good a reason as any, we'll start at the bottom with paper animations and work our way up"

In the Hospital Wing  
Maurice carefully scrubbed the blood off his face, wearing clean hospital wing issue pajamas as his blood-soaked uniform had been judged unsalvageable by Madam Pomfrey. Maurice had run back to the pitch after delivering the Hufflepuff girl, Parvati Patil to Pomfrey just in time to see McGonagall's enchanted suits of armor army drive off the attacking spiders with extreme prejudice.  
Headmistress McGonagall's words rang through his head like a reverberating clash of cymbals "You're a hero child, Hogwarts is proud tae hae ye as yin o' her ain."  
The rest of what she said had gone over his head as the day's events had begun to sink in. He hadn't thought as he dived to save Parvati, he hadn't intended to be a hero, how could he even be called a hero when Parvati Patil lay as pale as death on the hospital bed missing her left arm and both of her her legs?  
"I know that look"  
Maurice jerked and met the gaze of the man who had snuck up on him "Who?!"  
The grizzled old man covered in scars in Auror uniform smirked prosthetic blue eye spinning in all directions "My name is Alastor Moody and I hear you're the reason one of my goddaughters is still alive"  
Maurice grimaced, if it had been him in that bed in that state he wouldn't want to be alive.  
"None of that looking sorry for yourself boy I near raised that girl myself after things went bad with her parents and I'll tell you this, that despite looking like a harmless little bunny rabbit that girl has grit, just you wait she'll be up and hopping before you know it."  
Maurice couldn't find it in him to smile but no longer was he as miserable "Between you and me boy" Moody tapped his prosthetic peg leg which then shimmered revealing an entirely different looking leg that near matched his original one made of a patchwork of glinting steel that emulated each flex of muscle. Maurice gawped Moody winked and reapplied the glamour "She's not going to be losing much"

Above The Forbidden Forrest  
Magical spider insecticide rained down upon the Forbidden Forrest poured by hundreds of witches and wizards on brooms wearing bubblehead charms like astronauts.  
These witches and wizards in white and grey robes were the Sky Patrol, their first mission out in force as blandly stated by Amelia Bones, Pest Control.  
In the Astronomy Tower, Professor Sprout watched the green rain falling on the forest with gritted teeth remembering the Minister's announcement earlier in the Great Hall. An expedition into the forest to manually deal with the problem had been judged as unfeasible as Acromantula were expert ambush predators evolved specifically to eat humans.  
"It is the only option" Amelia Bones had spoken, "I will not have another Acromantula attack on the school where many of Wizarding Britain's children reside, though it will upset the ecosystem for a short while spiders, ordinary normal spiders, will be reintroduced after the Acromantula are gone."  
Professor Sprout had already ordered the house elves to source the school's food from further afield, the thought of hastily sourced, thus of dubious quality nerve degenerative solution based spider pesticide making its way into the food chain and then the students scared her something fierce.

In the Forbidden Forest  
The large white Acromantula sighed gazing with blind eyes up at the sky "Things have changed Hagrid… I have grown old, no longer do my children listen to me and because of this, they have invited death into our home… I will not be here when you return, I only wish that I could have warned you of what is coming. Farewell my friend"  
Green rain descended.

In an Unknown Location  
"I hear there was some excitement at Hogwarts today"  
"Yes sir, apparently half a colony of Acromantula attacked the campus without provocation"  
"Was it one of our agents?"  
"Negative, The Unspeakable's, St Mungo's Head Healer and a potions master confirmed that they were completely native"  
"And they didn't attack before now? How interesting."  
"The British ministry has confirmed that the centaur population has been decimated and there hasn't been a single unicorn sighting in the entire forest"  
"They searched the entire thing?"  
"Yes sir after they gassed the Acromantula they took the opportunity to cleanse the forest of anything truly dangerous, did you know that there were hags in the darker parts of the forest?"  
"No, but good riddance to bad rubbish"  
"Agreed"


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Halloween and a sickening volume of chocolate is here and Parvati has joined the duo, Maurice practices sugar moderation and talks about feelings with his best friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

Wednesday  
October 30th, Halloween 1991  
Alastor Moody was right Maurice decided as Parvati walked alongside Susan and himself no worse for wear. Upon returning to Hogwarts that Halloween day Parvati had strode through the Great Hall bold as brass ignoring the stares at her gleaming silver and purple prosthetic limbs and sat next to Maurice and Susan at the Ravenclaw table with a proclamation of "Pass the bacon, Sugar-whiz"  
Maurice was very very thankful that she then shortened that nickname to Sugar in return Maurice had used Moody's analogy and nicknamed her Bunnie which led her to ask if he'd ever met a man called Alastor Moody. This led to an interesting conversation "When ah was born ma mum came down with depression, my dad made Moody babysit me a lot when mum was in one of her moods so ah spent a lot of time with ma godfather when he was touring M.A.C.U.S.A teaching their Aurors. Ah only emigrated ta here recently"  
It neatly explained why an Indian looking girl sounded like an American southern belle, thought Maurice, especially if she'd been traveling America her whole life.  
"Are you alright?" asked Susan referring to her prosthetics Parvati now nicknamed Bunnie shrugged off the worry "Sure, ahm alright, stronger too, ah can lift this entire bench and everyone on it if ah wanted, just don't ask me to go near anything with more than eight legs, K?"  
Maurice poked at the treacle pumpkin tart with a spoon before cautiously taking a bite and freezing.  
"Not to your liking, sugar?" queried Bunnie. Maurice grimaced showing the bowl into her hands "More like remove the temptation please, before I eat it all and turn into Dudley"  
"Who's Dudley" asked Susan taking a spoonful out of the treacle and abruptly grimacing at the sugary sweet taste.  
"An extremely fat cousin I wish I wasn't related to" Maurice grumped.  
Maurice didn't talk about his family often with his friends and had a tendency to ignore that they existed. "And you're scared of becoming a roly-poly?" asked Susan changing the subject slightly and reaching for some water to get rid of the taste, Maurice shuddered "Yes"  
"In that case ah'll take that, ah need the energy to work these limbs" Bunnie helped herself, masterfully ignoring Maurice's woeful gaze.  
Maurice crossed his arms and pouted grumpily before his attention was caught by one of the enchanted flying bats eyes narrowing in thought "…Hey, I have an idea"  
"About what?" mumbled Susan into her drink.  
"Well, it's Halloween, right? Creepiest night of the year and we're in a giant medieval castle decked out for the season, let's go explore." Maurice nodded to himself, it would also remove him from the vicinity of sugary temptation.  
Susan looked skeptical "You sure? The wizarding world is primarily atheist, I think the feast is the only thing to make Halloween, Halloween that the staff did"  
Looking around at the hall Maurice took in the sight of many students on sugar rushes and stuffing their faces "And yet we have a Halloween themed feast with enough chocolate to make anyone sick at a glance" Maurice glanced to the staff table and leaned closer "..and I overheard one of the teachers say that they were disappointed that they didn't get to turn back any tricks and they said that the Halloween feast is pure laziness"  
"Who said tha Sugar?"  
"Flitwick and Kettleburn, I heard that they were going to enchant some of the old corridors for anyone out of bounds before curfew, just for giggles" Susan gave the candy-covered table another once over "Fine let's go, I know when my eyes are bigger than my stomach"

Stairway to the dungeons  
"I dunno if this was the best idea Sugar."  
Maurice snorted "Where's your sense of adventure, Buns? Lumos"  
"A giant spider ate it" she spoke with enough snark to make Maurice and Susan wince.  
"I'd hardly call our first flying lesson an adventure" Susan lit her wand following Maurice down the stairway Parvati trailing behind.  
The light spell cast unusual shadows on the walls causing them to look as if writhing lively around the walls "Sue I think we're here, this is the place they were talking about"  
"Creepy enough"  
"Buns where are you?" Maurice turned back and froze "SPIDER!" shrieked Bunnie disappearing back the way they'd come, before Maurice could even think of anything the spider set its eyes on Susan and to their surprise began to shift form, Susan froze in place as the now two monsters in human guise turned to her, gashed skin showing white bone in places and reeking of decay.  
Maurice lost his cool, this was going too far, he blocked the creature's view of Susan purposely ignored the creature as its gaze latched onto Maurice and began to shift, sweeping the blank-eyed Susan off her feet Maurice ran.  
Coming to a stop a few corridors down in a hallway lined with statues and a bit lost Maurice set Susan down "Well, It was scary…"  
Maurice scowled "Susan, I'm sorry my whole idea was just rotten from start to finish"  
"What a way to end the day" Susan sighed.  
Maurice shrugged helplessly "I'm sorry?"  
Susan waved Maurice's apology off "No, it's okay, We just had some bad luck is all, Boggart's like that one usually hide in small closets or things like that, the enchanted darkness must have been acceptable for it."  
Susan sat on the plinth of a statue rubbing her eyes tiredly.  
Maurice spoke before he thought "Who were those people it transformed into?"  
"My parents, they died in the last wizarding war a month before the war ended, my Aunts the only blood relative I have left, The dark lord went after a lot of children that year"  
Maurice wrapped an arm around Susan's shoulder as a show of support.  
"What about you Maurice? It looked like it transformed into a crowd of people back there when it saw you"  
Susan felt Maurice flinch "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to"  
Maurice met her gaze evenly green eyes sad "No, you told me yours so it's only fair"  
Maurice paused sitting next to Susan on the plinth drawing his knees up to his chin "When I first discovered my ability to run at super-speed I explored the country a lot and through it, I met a lot of people, I just keep wondering if I'd have been able to save them if I'd been in Diagon Alley in the day of the attack" the last part came out in a rush.  
"Maurice…"  
"I keep thinking that I should have done something when I heard about it, I can run at super-speed so maybe I could have done something. Then I saw Parvati getting hurt by those Acro- Aclo- those spiders and now I know I really could have made a difference, I keep seeing the people in that alley calling me a coward"  
Susan scowled and pulled the surprised eleven-year-old into a hug "Maurice, you are eleven years old, ten at the time you shouldn't have done anything and even if you could, you shouldn't feel obligated to help people Maurice, You should only help people if you can give it your all because you want to, at least that's what my Aunt said."  
Maurice wiped his moist eyes "Where'd she come up with that"  
"Dumbledore the previous headmaster in Britain held three of the highest positions in government until recently but he quit two of them to work with the ICW full time, He said he wanted to be able to help people with a clearer conscience and be able to do it without feeling it was a duty"  
"We're not very good at being first years are we?" The question was only partway rhetorical.  
Susan huffed "Yes, I see your point"  
"Most kids our age are pranking people or stuffing our faces with chocolate or just being idiots. Us?" Maurice scoffed leaning into Susan's embrace… and lost promptly his balance toppling both of them backwards through the apparently fake statue with exclamations of shock as they began to slide down a chute.  
Landing abruptly with a thump Maurice lit his wand and stated the obvious "Uh? Susan, I think we found a secret passage"  
The room the two found themselves in was like a tunnel in a mine, with support beams all around the wall wood paneling lined the tunnel extended outwards in branches with various rooms off the sides. A dusty rudimentary kitchen in one, several bedrooms, a conference room and more were unexplored. Maurice found something interesting in one of the classrooms, specifically how the door exited out into a hidden antechamber near Hogwarts underground boat dock from behind a concealed rock.  
Susan cast a cleaning charm at one of the chairs and she and Maurice goggled when it changed color from ebony brown to honey gold, making it evident just how dirty the thing had been before. "No one's been here for a very long time, I think this place has been forgotten about." Susan theorized.  
"You know this could make a good clubhouse," thought Maurice aloud "Give it a twice over with some serious cleaning charms and we can have a proper place to study and play around in"  
Susan grimaced as a thought hit her "We should probably check Bunnies okay first and come back tomorrow"  
Maurice looked around at the dusty room and snorted wincing as he inhaled some dust "Yeah you're probably right"

Hogwarts 7th Floor  
Lee Jordan looked carefully at the small transcript he'd copied from an old book in the Library doubtfully again then looked at the absurd portrait on the wall, of a man teaching trolls to dance, Turning to the opposite blank wall Lee began to pace 'I need to find the place my ancestors hid, I need to find the place my ancestors hid, I need to find the place my ancestors hid' on the third pace a metal door materialized, Lee took a deep breath and gathering his courage, opened the door.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Parvati hires the Discord Detectives, Hogwarts is infiltrated, non-magical days of significance are remembered and alarming discoveries are made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

Saturday, November 2nd

With the freezing weather outside and with no other obligations between them the three of them had spent the last few days clearing up the hidden room and turning it into a makeshift clubhouse, though they had yet to decide a name for it.  
"I still think a double-matted frame would look better" Susan gestured at the non-magical world map Maurice had stuck on the wall.  
Maurice stretched as he considered the map "Well for now just use the aluminum frame and we can move onto fixing the upholstery and come back to this later."  
"Hey, nice digs!"  
Maurice and Susan jumped and spun looking around at the intruder, Parvati stood with a male freckled redhead with brown eyes in Ravenclaw uniform and an Italian looking boy with a dark complexion, a black crew cut hairstyle and brown eyes in Slytherin uniform.  
Parvati beamed "Sugar, these guys have agreed to help us ward the clubhouse, ain't that mighty nice o them?"  
The redhead introduced himself first posing dramatically with his chest puffed out "I'm Fred Weasley and this is Blaise Zabini and together we're Hogwart's first detective agency! From lost cats to buried treasure we'll find what you're looking for! For a small fee of course."  
Blaise spoke up demurely "Miss Parvati has contracted us to conceal this clubhouse from curious eyes"  
"What's your fee for this service?" asked Maurice wondering what Buns had gotten them into.  
The redhead spoke up "Well, Miss Parvati suggested we share the clubhouse as a base for our detective business, as long as we keep the wards updated for however long we stay here until we get our own public base set up as well as teach you some warding techniques if ya want."  
Maurice mused over that it was a good idea "What do you think Sue?"  
Susan nodded "It does sound like a good idea and I'd really like to learn some warding, let's go for it."  
"Just run any changes through us first okay?"  
"Sure thing, Miss Parvati"

Astronomy Tower 11:00 pm Tuesday, November 5th  
"Ooh!"  
"That one looks like a rabbit!"  
"I thought wizards didn't really celebrate Non-Magical holidays much?" spoke Maurice reclined on a beanie bag on the astronomy tower watching the multicolored fizzing fireworks go off in the sky far above Hogsmeade.  
Susan smirked remembering something her aunt had said "It's an excuse to make explosions in the sky seen for miles around and not be in violation of the Statue of Secrecy, you just try to stop them"  
"Are shooting stars meant to do that?" Maurice gestured as the yellow firework stars danced erratically in the sky, circling each other in a well-coordinated flyover.  
"…"

Library 7:00 am Saturday, November 9th  
"Susan, I was thinking, do you want to go to Cambridge tomorrow?"  
Susan blinked that offer came completely out of the blue pun intended "Well there aren't really any rules keeping students here on a weekend not really, what do you have in mind" Maurice toed the dirt "Do you want to spend this Sunday in the non-magical world? Its Remembrance Sunday and I honestly wouldn't feel right being at a noisy Quidditch match the whole day, there's a parade in Cambridge and people are going to be speaking about the wars" Susan paused noting the red poppy clipped to his Ravenclaw tie at his neck "I had completely forgotten the date" Susan paused again noting Maurice's relieved look.  
"Is there a reason you've decided not to watch Quidditch?"  
Maurice shifted in place "Nothing against the sport, truthfully I'm just looking for a bit of closure"  
"Closure?"  
"Closure" reaffirmed Maurice at her questioning look "Diagon Alley didn't get a memorial service, I want to move on, what happened that day was horrible the people deserve to be remembered even in some small way and really it's Slytherin versus Gryffindor, nothing to do with us"  
Susan blinked realization hitting "Right, No house points this year" Noticing he was still waiting for an answer "Okay let's go tomorrow morning then, I'll have to send a letter to my aunt though"

Dear Aunt Amelia  
I'm mailing you to ask for advice about something, my friend Maurice, the one I've told you about lost some people in the Diagon Alley incident and hasn't had a chance to properly grieve. He's asked me to accompany him to Cambridge this Sunday to celebrate the Non-Magical's Remembrance Sunday in memory of those who have fallen with the intent of including those who died in Diagon.  
Lots of Love  
Susan Amelia Bones

Dear Susan  
I think your friend Maurice had a brilliant idea and I intend to institute a similar wizarding Remembrance Day, regardless of the boys incredible ability I don't like the idea of two eleven-year-olds alone in Cambridge all day alone, as I cannot come in person how would you feel about having Alastor Moody acting as a chaperone?  
Love  
Amelia Bones  
Minister of Magic

Ravenclaw Common Room  
Susan thanked Professor Flitwick for couriering the letter through the floo, being the niece of the Minister of Magic had its perks such as allowing her to completely skip using owl mail and get a fast reply.  
Penning a short reply and handing it to Flitwick, Susan went to see Maurice and saw he was chatting with Bunnie. "Auntie said yes but she's sending Moody as chaperone" Susan spoke causing Bunnie to light up, a familiar voice issued from her bag "I'll be here at eight tomorrow taking all three of you to Cambridge and then onto London for the formal dedication at eleven" Bunnie pulled out a purple heart-shaped face mirror from which Moody's face was visible "A two-way mirror?" Susan exclaimed in surprise.  
Moody grinned unsettlingly from the purple hand mirror "This ain't no ordinary mirror I enchanted it myself It connects to any mirror I add to the network" Susan whistled "I know what I want for my birthday"  
"I've already written the enchantment down fer yeh" Moody in the mirror replied. "So you have any plans boyo?"  
Maurice startled "I was going to stop by the Sunday Faire and pick up some lunch for us at the Botanic Garden glasshouse where there's a storytelling session led by veterans."  
"Sounds interesting, anything else?"  
"No that was it."  
"Well, how would you like to Floo to London for their ceremony? If yer serious about it that is" "Sure"

Sunday, November 10th  
Hogwarts Quidditch Broom Storage Shed 5:50 am  
"A preliminary inspection of the brooms has shown that all teams will be on equal footing ma'am and if I may say they are in excellent condition, I don't quite understand why I was called in."  
McGonagall spoke "I was simply making sure they hadn't been affected by the events of the Acromantula attack"  
The inspector snapped his fingers in realization "Acromantula venom is highly corrosive towards organic materials, I didn't even think of that. Smart thinking Headmistress, anyway the broomsticks are in mint condition with no corrosion evident in my scans I'll be on my way"  
The inspector made his way down from the castle to the Three Broomsticks and to his rented room. Upon closing the door the glamour fell revealing a short frizzy blond-haired woman with the build of a marathon athlete and deeply unsettling yellow eyes "Easy as pie" the other person in the room was built like a bodybuilder and had dark skin and eyes with messy short black hair. Observing the false inspector briefly he spoke, idly fiddling with an odd ceramic contraption and a rune carving pen "Did you get what the boss was looking for Cat?"  
"Yes Bull, Everything's fine, the warding algorithm hasn't changed much from the prior samples we examined."  
"Much? What's changed?"  
Cat smiled like her namesake had caught a canary "There's an anti-aggression ward over the school"  
Bull looked lost for a moment "…Lollapalooza say what now?"  
The fake inspector grinned maliciously "You heard me"  
A pause "That's not a good thing is it?"  
"On the contrary, it is very good, for us, the population is being trained to be relatively docile, don't count on the next generation knowing much destructive magic"  
"You think the Boss will be happy Cat?  
Cat nodded still grinning "He'll be ecstatic"

Unused classroom, ground floor  
Red light splashed against the hanging canvas each time getting closer and closer to hitting the moving animated target drawn on its surface. "Stupefy!" Spoke Ronald firmly attempting to track the animated bull's eye and anticipate where it would be. Knowing hundreds of spells was nice and all but the more he read the more Ronald was convinced that he only needed to know a few spells and master them, even more important than that was aim.

Cambridge University Botanic Gardens  
After a long day in London watching various dedications and a speech from the queen Susan listened enraptured as the old men spoke of their experiences during world wars drawing those listening into their story.  
Moody sat next to Bunnie un-glamoured apart from his spinning eye which was enchanted to look like a normal eye as he also listened to the men talking. Maurice sat on the blanket on the ground in the botanical gardens' hot greenhouse letting the voices wash over him, the heat lulling him into a state of calm. Bunnie was lying down on her front, head propped up on her elbows "This was a good idea sugar" "More fun than a Quidditch match?" Bunnie nodded "Warmer too" Bunny gestured at the large flowering cacti on her right. "You feeling any better sugar?" Maurice smiled "Yes, I am"

Hogwarts, 7th floor, unknown room  
Lee surveyed the cavernous room writing on a notepad as he went, "This is truly amazing, I had no idea such a place existed" Spoke Professor Fronsac from the small landscape propped on an easel near the door.  
The room itself looked to be a massive cavern large enough to fit sixteen Pyramids of Giza comfortably with space for a highway between them, the walls were marbled through with glowing white onyx, sparkling opal on a background of what looked like very dark purple hewn sugilite.  
"It makes sense in hindsight, I doubt the founders wanted to do much walking every time they needed direct access to the ward stone"  
Professor Fronsac shook his head in disbelief "But storing it in an expanded wizarding space like this, it shouldn't be possible"  
Lee sat down and sighed looking around "I think that instead of just being powered by the leylines the entire room actively draws power from them and stores it here for use, but I think the founders overestimated how much magic the school needed"  
Lee pointed at the glowing, for lack of a better word, hill of white onyx in the center of the room "then over the years the volume of stored magic, that the school didn't use, crystallized"  
Professor Fronsac followed Lee's chain of thought perfectly and frowned "The founders designed the school to house thousands of students and clearly expected that number to increase over time but… why didn't it?"  
Lee had an answer to this and it wasn't a pleasant realization "The ward stone draws magic from the leylines of the planet and it isn't giving it back, so there's less magic to go around, added onto that wizarding wars every few centuries and selective breeding by purebloods means that the issue hasn't been noticed. Because of the way the Hogwarts ward stone is designed, trapping the magical energy like this, it's almost as if the leylines have accidentally been trained to deposit all their energy here. The slightest disruption anywhere else means that the magical energy is redirected here permanently." Lee fell silent pondering the enormity of what he'd discovered.  
"We can't tell anyone about this and there is no way we can return the energy to the leylines because the backlash of this much magic might glass the planet, we can't stop it because the knowledge has been lost to time and experimenting on this could also glass the planet. We can't tell anyone about this because some idiot might get it onto their head to attempt to use it and end up glassing the planet by purpose or by accident." Lee laid flat on his back on the floor and huffed which oddly turned into a laugh.  
"I see nothing funny about this" Spoke Professor Fronsac icily.  
Lee scoffed "I remember Professor Quirrell stating that non-magicals had us beat in pure destructive capabilities with their atomic weapons, then I see this monstrosity and just.." Lee sighed and closed his eyes resisting the urge to break something.


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Other Hogwarts Student lives, Neville joins the group and the obligatory Christmas chapter that every writer writes at some point.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

December 1st Ravenclaw Common Room  
A lone Ravenclaw, with frizzy brown hair, eyes a faded puffy red from shed and dried tears reached for the notice board searching for one particular notice "Who dies from a broken heart anyway?" the cryptic remark full of resolve further illustrated by her fresh signature on the sign-up sheet for the Frog Choir.

Gryffindor Common Room  
"Angelina Johnson, you can't do this to me!" Wailed Oliver Wood loudly at the third year, tears of grief streaming down his face "You can't leave Hogwarts! It was hard enough to replace George as a beater!"  
Alicia Spinnet smacked Oliver hard over the back of his head causing him to yelp "Get a grip, Oliver! What would you do if your father took ill? Abandon him for Quidditch?" Oliver slumped "Fine, Abandon us, your beloved captain wishes you all the best in your-" Oliver shuddered "-Quidditchless world"  
Alicia shook her head in disbelief as she and Angelina stared wordlessly at their 'beloved captain' as he slumped his way depressed up the stairs to the dorm room. "Such a drama queen that one, anyway are you okay with this?"  
Angelina nodded "It's okay, besides I'm not leaving until the morning after the Christmas holidays when dad gets out of St Mungo's"  
"How will this affect your schooling?"  
"I'm signed up to a correspondence course so I'll be taking my O.W.L.S and N.E.W.T.S at the Ministry when I'm ready."  
"You'll keep in contact right?"  
Angelina smiled warmly "I promise"

Hogwarts Library  
Neville Longbottom grimaced as he cast the revealing spell for what seemed like the thousandth time on the semi-transparent book "Revelio!" each casting seemed to make the book marginally less transparent. Neville sighed and straightened himself and stepped back as he cast "ReveliooooACCK!-" and promptly tripped over another book at his feet, the spell lashed out in a wave of blue revealing a wide-eyed and slightly spooked Blaise Zabini in the next aisle holding a book on advanced warding. Neville squeaked "Oops Sorry!" Blaise stepped forward and offered the cringing Ravenclaw a hand "No problem, is that The Invisible Book Of Invisibility?" Neville nodded shyly "I'm learning charms but I need to be able to read it first" Blaise smiled self-deprecatingly gesturing to his now visible self "Yeah I noticed"  
Neville gathered his courage to ask "So why were you hiding?"  
Blaise smirked, "Warding isn't a standard subject at Hogwarts thus by remaining invisible I can read in peace without nosy librarians sticking their noses in."  
Neville grimaced "Sorry"  
Blaise had an idea "No trouble, you seem to be good with charms how would you like to meet a group of friends I know? Right now we're learning some warding which is related to charms I think"  
Neville tried to muffle the rising hope "Like a study group? I wouldn't want to be a bother"  
"You aren't" Blaise reassured Neville not at all happy at the way the first year seemed to sink in on himself, pulling the boy as he walked to the as of yet unnamed clubhouse.

The Secret Clubhouse – Name Pending  
"I don't know Sue…" Maurice drew out a sigh as he leafed through the sketches then to the blank canvases. "Something less suspicious might be better" Susan looked at the sketch Maurice held out "A landscape of a circus tent? In Hogwarts? I can see your point, the guardian painting for the hideout needs to be more subtle"  
Susan looked at the sketch and sighed "Maybe you should grab some more of those art books from the library-"  
*Crash!*  
Susan was jarred from her observation of the painting and looked around "Maurice?!" walking to the entrance where the sound had come from Susan was joined by Bunnie who stuck her head out of the room she was renovating "What in tarnation was that?"  
"I should have expected this" muttered Susan staring at something on the ground, Bunnie saw it was a shoe or rather the shredded remains of one. "Maurice? Are you okay?" a pained groan from beyond the entrance was audible.

Outside The Secret Clubhouse – Name Pending  
Blaise blinked at the entrance to the clubhouse and the missing portrait that was formerly on the opposite wall before pulling the clueless Neville Longbottom through the doorway with a shrug.  
"Does that feel better Maurice?" spoke Susan quietly dabbing Maurice's head with a cold compress "Bit better" mumbled Maurice laying limp on one of the many salvaged couches.  
"What happened here?" asked Blaise making Susan and Bunnie jump.  
"Whozat?" mumbled Maurice  
"I asked first" Blaise retorted mildly.  
"Sugars shoes died" spoke Bunnie vastly amused for some reason.  
"Poor shoes" mumbled Maurice.  
"He needs to go to the hospital wing" noted Blaise.  
"He's already been" Susan shook her head rolling her eyes "Apparently he's mildly allergic to a ingredient in a healing potion so it makes him giggly" Susan shrugged.  
"Whozat?" Maurice pointed to the person behind Blaise again.  
"And absent-minded" amended Susan.  
"This is Neville Longbottom, He's skilled at charms and I've been told his portraiture work it quite excellent"  
"My shoes died" Maurice repeated woefully sad.  
Susan took a deep breath "We'll get a better pair, a magic pair that won't fall apart at the speed you run"  
"But they were magic" mumbled Maurice.  
"Then you can order a new pair"  
Maurice frowned "No I can't"  
"Yes, you can" spoke Susan exasperatedly.  
"No I can't, I made them"  
"Then you can make them again"  
"I wished them" Maurice nodded sagely.  
Making the logic leap Neville spoke up this time looking part awed part horrified "You've been holding a pair of non-magical shoes together in a highly saturated magical environment with wish magic the entire time you've been here?"  
"My shoes died" Maurice chirped in agreement, Susan facepalmed and quietly counted to ten.  
Neville interjected "I can fix them for you, I'm learning charms from one of the upper years"  
"But my shoes died…"  
"We know Maurice"  
Bunnie cackled in the background.

21st December  
Ministerial Solstice Ball  
"May I have this dance milady" spoke Tiberius Ogden in a dignified rumble to Minister Amelia Bones.  
Emmeline Vance leader of Wizarding Army of National Defence otherwise known as the newly founded W.A.N.D employed a Herculean amount of will in an effort to not waggle her eyebrows suggestively at Amelia Bones as she was asked to the dance floor by the redheaded man collectively and informally known amongst the older witches in the ministry as Lord Dishy.  
"Certainly" Spoke Amelia praying that her colleague would behave herself.  
As he led her to the dance floor a slow song started up they could sway to "I trust you have a reason to break tradition like this Lord Ogden" Not that tradition really mattered these days, but the illusion was important.  
"I merely wished for an opportunity to talk without prying ears"  
Amelia smiled wryly "And prying eyes are so much better?" Various people at the ball were indeed surveying them though not as subtle as they thought they were.  
Ogden raised a brow "In this case yes I wanted to inquire as to what you intend to do with your unlimited power as of this moment"  
Amelia recounted something she'd said many times before "After the crisis is over-"  
Amelia inhaled sharply as Ogden pulled her close to sway closer speaking quietly to not be overheard "Don't take me for a fool, Amelia, I read my non-magical literature enough to see someone consolidating their power for the long haul"  
Amelia met his piercing blue eyes calmly "And if I am?"  
Ogden smirked lightly "Temper, temper, I'm no fool like those antiques in the so-called Wizengamot, I fully intend to ride the wave of change firmly into our shining future." He led Amelia into a twirl pulling her close again.  
"And what do you see in the future as my lord?"  
This time Ogden smiled "No doubt the same as you, my fair lady, full equal rights, incentives to young couples to have families and general competence across all sectors, of course, what I'm interested in is how you're going to keep these changes in place when the Wizengamot regain power."  
Amelia's calm visage was the picture of serenity with the smile of a shark "They won't"  
Ogden nearly missed a step at the change before correcting himself "Well done and when you're gone?"  
Amelia's now steely eyes met his "I'm confident my daughter can handle it"  
For a moment that caught Ogden off guard before he realized what she meant. "Daugh-? Ah! your niece, she's your next in line. I've heard nothing but positive things concerning her, I suppose this country is in good hands then My Queen"  
Worried eyes cast about "Don't-"  
"Don't what? Call it what it is? You Amelia Bones are setting up a dynasty and unlike every dictator in the world you are doing it for good reasons, to keep the corrupt former leadership out of power." Ogden laughed lightly truly smiling now.  
Amelia challengingly met the eyes of this man who was so sharp. "And what do you intend to do about it?"  
"Marry me, Amelia"  
It was Amelia's turn to nearly miss a step in the dance unable to speak from shock.  
His sharp knowing smile and kind eyes were searing in their sincerity as he spoke casually of taking over the country in a bloodless coup "Between us, you and I, we have the outright adoration of the people, together we can solidify our rule in a way we cannot do separately and to be honest? I could do worse than the woman who coined my very flattering nickname when she was still a senior Auror on patrol."  
Amelia blushed red even as she frantically considered her reply.

Hogwarts, 25th December  
Maurice, Susan, Bunnie, Neville, Fred, and Blaise made for a well-balanced group, alone they remained in the castle which meant that exploring the castle became a priority especially as this meant they could each enter each other's common rooms with impunity leaving only Hufflepuff untouched and no one to gainsay them. Fred went to the castle's kitchens and a food delivery system was set up regarding the room's secret clubhouse. The day before Neville had finally hit a breakthrough regarding Maurice's disintegrating shoe problem and created shoes that could stand up to nearly anything. Since then Maurice had been skidding all over the icy castle and somehow managed to wrangle his way out of detention from Professor Quirrell for rail grinding down the banisters in the stairway. All six had forgone house boundaries and camped out together in the Gryffindor Common Room together staying up late with a small Christmas banquet in the warmest common room, the teachers upon hearing the plan had made their own party in the staff room and sent the catering house elves to keep watch on the students.  
Fred had borrowed the chess set his younger brother had left behind and had tried to teach Maurice to play before giving up to play against Susan who proceeded to soundly thrashed him with a smile.

So this is Solstice

Fred wore his yellow striped green jumper with the bold blue F on the chest proudly jokingly dragging the protesting Blaise into an enthusiastic waltz around the common room to the wizarding wireless's thinly veiled John Lennon music edit, having opened his present first.

And what have you done

Another year over

And a new one just begun

Maurice laughed as he pulled a cracker with Susan which exploded in her favor to reveal a red velvet cape.  
He won the following one with Bunnie which revealed a blue surfboard.

And so this is Solstice

I hope you have fun

The near and the dear one

Neville smiled as he examined the full set of Beaters armor the group had chipped into to buy him knowing that he'd have fun enchanting it.

The old and the young

A very Merry Solstice

And a happy New Year

In an unknown location  
Albus Dumbledore toasted the stars with a glass of mead and fellow ICW mages.

Let's hope it's a good one

Without any fear

And so this is Solstice (war is over)

The Burrow  
Ron Weasley laughed as his father and eldest brother told funny stories from the past wearing his mauve jumper with gold R on the front proudly.  
Ginny Weasley played with the odd blue and yellow kitten sized creature George had given her and laughed as it chirped happily.

For weak and for strong (if you want it)

For rich and the poor ones (war is over)

The world is so wrong (now)

British Library, Magical Section  
Lee Jordon contentedly hummed a random Christmas jingle as he cross-referenced maps and magical geology books in the warm alcove, a bowl of grapes within arm's reach.

And so happy Solstice (war is over)

For black and for white (if you want it)

For yellow and red ones (war is over)

Gryffindor Common Room  
Bunnie clapped as she examined the book of clothes editing charms she'd unwrapped.  
Fred grinned wildly at the Sherlock Holmes expanded omnibus edition that Maurice and Susan had gotten the aspiring detective.  
Blaise admired the carefully wrapped box of shuriken and kunai Maurice had somehow gotten him.

Let's stop all the fight (now)

A very Merry Solstice

And a happy New Year

Maurice's mouth gaped in sheer pleasant surprise at his present a triple necked guitar, running a hand over the chords revealed it was perfectly tuned.  
Susan blushed as Maurice fastened the clasp of the silver necklace around her neck the small engraving of a stylized S shining in the firelight.  
Maurice was unprepared for Susan to kiss him on the cheek and excused himself for a quick run or at least until his blush went away.

Let's hope it's a good one

Without any fear

And so this is Solstice (war is over)

Romanian Dragon Reserve  
A large hairy half-giant and a red-headed Weasley knocked tankards back, cheered on by fellow dragon keepers whilst dragons roared in the distance.

And what have we done (if you want it)

Another year over (war is over)

A new one just begun (now)

At the Ministry  
Emmeline Vance and other employees marveled over the large diamond-studded engagement ring on Amelia Bone's ring finger and the new sigils of House Bones and House Ogden engraved in the metal signifying the merger of the two noble houses into one.

And so happy Solstice (war is over)

We hope you have fun (if you want it)

The near and the dear one (war is over)

The new house motto "Small Beginnings" the new sigil, a bronze acorn on a golden field.

The old and the young (now)

A very Merry Solstice

And a happy New Year

Smeltings Academy, South East England  
Soaking wet and red with fury Dudley Dursley was led away in handcuffs by grim-looking police from Smeltings Academy as teacher Joyce Haddock looked on with a thunderous scowl.

Let's hope it's a good one

Without any fear

War is over, if you want it

Maurice hollered in exhilaration as he finally reached that boundary and blew past it with a long-awaited sonic boom in the crisp winter air, rattling the windows of the castle. A brilliant flash of light caused Maurice to skid as it blinded him forcing him to a halt.

War is over now

Expecting pain and feeling none Maurice got to his feet under the summer sun to look around and froze-

Happy Solstice

-meeting the equally surprised eyes of his identical doppelganger.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maurice goes skidding into another dimension and a shocking series of revelations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

?December 25th, 1991 / June 25th, 1991?

?Hogwarts School / Hogwarts Castle?

?Earth / Terra?

It was a moment frozen in time as both figures simply tried to comprehend what they were seeing, ever so slowly differences started to make themselves clear. While Maurice had spiky blue hair, wore blue jeans and a Ravenclaw blue jumper the other wore a black leather jacket, prescription sunglasses, and what was clearly a Hufflepuff yellow neckerchief. Other differences were far more blatant such as the Other Maurice's hair leaning a shade more towards green than blue on the color wheel.  
The other Maurice matched Maurice's step for step as they circled each other slowing to a stop.  
"Who are you?"  
The Other Maurice smirked darkly "If you are who I think you are then you really aren't from around here"  
"Who are you?" Maurice repeated now more warily.  
Other Maurice gave a dramatic parody of a bow "Our birth names are Harry James Potter, though here?" Other Maurice grinned unsettlingly never once taking his unblinking eyes off Maurice as he straightened from his bow "Everyone calls me Scourge"  
Ice crept went up Maurice's spine, this was familiar yet at the same time, very off-script "Everyone calls me Maurice"  
"Misleading name that, Mines better"  
It took a fraction of a second for the alarmed Maurice to dodge the instantly formed glowing shiv of magic Scourge tried to decapitate him with.  
The now panicked Maurice attempted to force his breathing to remain calm even as Scourge matched his speed and occasionally lunged.  
It wasn't so much the homicidal copy's attack that was making him panic but the fact that no matter how hard he thought about it he could not remember why this situation was familiar, as if Maurice had a colossal gap in his memories.  
Taking in his surroundings Maurice studied the area where he'd ended up in from his first accidental jaunt across what his memories now rapidly fading, told him was an extra-dimensional superhighway known as the Cosmic Interstate. The evidence was clear by looking around at the nearby superstructure a different Hogwarts from the one he knew, from first glance it was obvious that this one did not serve as a school but purely as a defensive fortress glass windows replaced by murder holes and the barrels of ominous weaponry peeping out, even the lake had traces of this showing in barely visible Czech hedgehog defenses just at the waterline.  
With Scourge bearing down on him in the hot summer sun Maurice could not concentrate enough to get back home as the rapid change in temperature had thrown him off and caused him to slowly overheat in the balmy weather, the obvious solution was to lose the homicidal doppelganger on his metaphorical tail. Scourge yelled incoherently in rage, unable to follow as Maurice daringly swerved away and ran full pelt into the Forbidden Forest.  
As Maurice had mentioned earlier in the year he made it a point not to run through forests because of the dangers of tripping and injuring himself, so it was with resigned bitterness that after managing an admirable distance of several miles into the forest that Maurice's vision slipped into darkness after skidding on leaf litter and crashing into a tree.

A figure emerged from the forest and examined the unconscious bluenet, nodding to himself and with a flick of a wand levitated the unconscious dimensional traveler behind them and vanishing into the trees before Scourge could follow.

Maurice woke in existential terror gripping the corner of the bed, unceremoniously puking over the edge the now-forgotten gap in his memories causing a horrible migraine.  
"Easy there child" Maurice didn't have the energy to move but felt his terror slowly fade as the unidentified figure gently rubbed his back holding his hair out of the way. He wasn't completely calm after confronting his murderous uncanny valley doppelganger as demonstrated by the rattling of the surroundings and his own trembling.  
The figure spoke again patiently and soothingly "You must remain calm and contain your emotions, child" "Who are you and Where am I?"  
"Simply a humble Doctor and Healer who lives in these quiet woods, My name is Gellert" forcing himself to calm down Maurice looked to his rescuer, an old man who looked to be about 80 with white-streaked light blond hair and striking blue eyes.  
"That's better" Gellert commented as Maurice lost some of his agitation "That little monster really gave you the run around, didn't he"  
Seeing Maurice's confused expression Gellert sighed "Harry or Scourge as he calls himself wasn't always as mad as you saw him, though admittedly today he set a new record."  
"How did he turn out like that?" Maurice really wanted to know why the other him had gone bugnuts, for some reason it felt out of character though Maurice had no way of explaining his feelings on the matter.  
Gellert grimaced "It's been coming a long time really ever since the 1916 Magic Revolution that sparked it all."  
"What happened?"  
Gellert vanished the sick and sat in a chair near the bed clearing his throat "Ready yourself for a history lesson then. On the one-year anniversary of Minister of Magic Archer Evermonde's refusal to join the Great War, Henry Potter a seer much like myself, challenged the then Minster to a wizarding duel, won and forcibly seized power. The Statute of Secrecy was repealed that day and the war ended less than a month later.  
Henry Potter declared himself the defender of the peace, a role which since then has been inherited by each passing generation of Potters, In peacetime, that role has become more ceremonial than practical until James Potter who in grief after his wife's death began the crusade for beings rights at the expense of his only son, who as far as I can see was emotionally neglected. Naturally, as the child aged he saw his fathers job at fault, at the age of 8 he gained the incredible power through unknown means. At the age of eleven, the boy killed his father and has been terrorizing the world ever since."  
Maurice blinked even more confused "He's an eleven-year-old child how did he manage that and not get stopped?"  
Gellert sighed "To keep the peace the Potter family devised a charm called the Fidelius to erase mankind's entire knowledgebase of warfare, it was Henry Potters sons who found a way to amplify the spell to godlike levels, alas poor Arcus and Livius, wands and all, were reduced to ash in the aftermath of the casting with only Henry Potter remembering the secret to pass on to his grandchildren and so the entire world simply forgot how to fight."  
Maurice took a moment to digest that magic could do something like that on such a scale, suddenly feeling very small.  
Gellert continued "Despite his age Scourge is the first and most deadly Dark Lord in hundreds of years simply because he's the only one who knows the secret and therefore knows how to fight." Here Gellert paused thinking of something before adding "well.. him and his chosen lieutenants"  
Maurice had heard of the Fidelius charm during one of his many history tutoring sessions with Susan, learning of an enchantment that concealed a metaphysical concept gave him a headache, just thinking about it.  
Gellert paused gazing sharply into blue eyes "I understand that such a concept must shock you, coming from another world as you did"  
Maurice met Gellert's gaze suspiciously "And just how did you know that?"  
Gellert pointed towards an odd-looking hookah-skull object on a table nearby "I have the gift of the foresight, and with appropriate amplification tools my visions are the clearest in all the world. I foresaw your coming."  
Maurice couldn't help but be skeptical "The how come you didn't see Scourge?"  
Gellert's expression betrayed no change "I didn't see because I had no reason to look, this world was at peace. I spent my time looking at other more advanced worlds in an effort to find cures for diseases and illnesses that hadn't been invented here yet"  
Maurice tilted his head in though pursing his lips, that was actually quite brilliant "So what now?"  
"If you return home without encountering Scourge there is a high likely hood that he will be deposed in the next two years, The Centaurs and I have prepared a long runway through the forest hidden by the canopy as long as reach the prior speed that allowed you to enter this world you should be able to return seamlessly."  
Maurice met Gellert's gaze questioningly "Are you sure you don't want any help?"  
Gellert rapidly shook his head in the negative rapidly "No, thank you, If you help then Scourge will certainly follow you to your Earth and things will get worse for the both of our worlds by an unimaginable margin"  
Maurice blinked hiding his confusion and showing a little bit of irritation "Okay? Any tips?"  
Gellert paused thoughtfully "You and your friends are doing well but learning to use all your natural abilities to a greater degree would not go amiss and when the lake's mirror roars yellow, rapid downward duck and the light of the moon forms an array" Gellert shook his head and rapidly blinked as if to clear water from his eyes.  
For Maurice, after the day he'd had? There was only one thing to say to that really "Do you write fortune cookies as a side job?"  
Gellert rolled his eyes "Yet the sass. I did not foresee"

The long path in the canopied forest was not in a straight line and neither was daylight visible from beneath the trees, that hazard was more than made up for by the glimmering fairy lights illuminating the path, the track itself was a wide looping trail looping through the forest and quite possibly around the mountains to avoid sharp turns and allow for maximum acceleration. Still, for all of Gellert's talk of the effort it took to design such a thing Maurice saw no centaurs in the forest as they walked to the starting point. Taking one glance back at the old man Maurice swallowed his questions, there was shallow grief in the man's eyes and Maurice wondered if the wildlife of the forest had perished here like in his own world. Taking a breath and gathering his nerves Maurice nodded his thanks to the old man and took off, a first lap to become familiar with the route before really pouring on the power. This time keeping his eyes open as he crossed the barrier Maurice yelped as another flash of energy still nearly blinded him and his body was assaulted by a wall of cold air.

December 26th, 1991  
05:00 am Earth, Unknown Location  
Skidding to a stop and opening his eyes Maurice blinked in confusion 'This isn't Hogwarts? Where the heck am I?'

Another Unknown Location, The Long Corridor  
Augustus Rookwood and Operative Bull walked together down the long corridor named so because of its long semi-spiral and confusing layout, the corridor was enchanted to take the user to where they were meant to be doors appearing as required, the runes making it so carved into the walls then hidden by a thin layer of sheet iron preventing any quick alterations to the runic defenses by intruders.  
"Rookwood I have some concerns.." Spoke Operative Bull clad in a form-fitting thick grey jumpsuit  
Similarly clad were it not for the white lab coat thrown tidily on top with greased back hair Augustus Rookwood strode confidently forward. As they walked Rookwood mentally adjusting the Corridors enchantments lengthening the distance to their destination and thus the privacy to talk to his subordinate who looked a step away from wringing his hands in anxiety "What about, Operative Bull?"  
Sure enough, Bull's eyes were darting about nervously though keeping is tone professional and even, and again Rookwood mentally patted himself on the back for inventing a way to see through obscuring charms. After all, people were so much more expressive when they thought no one could see them, they involuntarily gave so much away "The new boss and when it comes to concerns you were always less…"  
"-Wrathful than our former leader when anyone questioned him?" Rookwood finished dryly.  
Bull nodded shamefaced, Lord Voldemort had started out well but when it got out from a few deserters that he would throw out the pain curses for the slightest infraction a lot of his supporters opted to become silent financial supporters. Much like himself though Cat hadn't been so lucky being marked before the man's fall.  
Rookwood laughed an expression of supreme amusement on his pock-marked face "Come now! Those days are behind us. Our new leader appreciates us and encourages us all to do our best without handing out pain curses when we fallible wizard occasionally fail"  
"But this operation is so much bigger, the consequences of even a single failure-"  
Rookwood rolled his eyes in disgust under his glamour charm designed to show whatever expression he desired truly an invention of necessity, Rookwood wasn't ashamed to admit he had a horrible poker face.  
"-I just can't help feel that we're in over our heads"  
Rookwood patted the operative encouragingly on the shoulder inwardly sneering at the Operative "Don't be, there may be many cogs in the machine but my master did not get to this stage by being ill-prepared and even if one of the cogs is taken out of the equation there are replacements, redundancies and back up plans in place. Though I must admit magical oaths and no easily identifiable tattoos make me feel a whole lot more secure this time around." Rookwood chuckled at his last sentence personably, Bull nodded in agreement at that, yet…  
"You still have something to ask me?"  
Bull nodded "Cat and I were talking and we'd like to be re-designated to development, we don't feel that we're being properly utilized in our current roles"  
Rookwood nodded ponderingly wondering if they actually had any beyond the traditional foppish pureblood entitlements most purebloods seemed to possess "Okay, reasons?"  
"My previous value was in my ministry connections but with Bones in charge that path is barred to me, however, I am at just below mastery level in Runes and if Cat weren't a supposedly dead death eater she'd have taken her Enchanting mastery ten years ago and she's only gotten better since then"  
Rookwood nodded actually quite surprised but then again most people couldn't afford the entry to the master's examinations, that may be a thing to look into though the master would be wrought with him if they were using valuable soldiers as disposable fodder "Good reasons I'll see what I can do, How did Jugson's gender reassignment go anyway? I can't imagine changing oneself that drastically to escape a Master Aurors scrying and tracking charms to have been an easy feat, mentally at least."  
Bull shrugged "it happened years ago so it was easier than you think actually, I don't think she ever felt right before, she's happier too, her name is Cam now."  
"Good on her" acknowledged Rookwood "Ah! Here we are"  
"I didn't expect the boss to throw us a party"  
"The master knows Morale is important, what better way than good food and great entertainment. So relax, because while tomorrow we get back to work, this night is ours"  
"Welcome to our revelry" the doors whispered swinging outward.  
"Oh wow" Breathed Bull.  
The Mirror room was fully lit up showing its cavernous size for the first time, the mirrors were all aglow no longer showing individual faces but full of starlight. The floor had gained a plush red carpet and Operatives and researchers milled around the many tables packed to the brim with foods of all kinds and nationalities their faces obscured by charms.  
"Well no time like the present"  
That snapped bull out of his awe pretty quickly and squeaked "Wait!? What?! Now!?"  
Rookwood gripped Bull by the elbow guiding the terrified Operative to the center of the room and towards his master.  
Eyes once a stunning blue now shone a solid pitiless red with blackened sclera, his figure once stooped with age and the neglect of isolation was now once again strong resembling the wizard as he had been back in his prime.  
"I am glad you could join us for this celebration Augustus this is an auspicious night indeed!" declared the very much free Gellert Grindelwald.


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Gore, Blood, and Corpses ahead. Viewer Discretion is advised from start to finish on this chapter.  
> The Unspeakables have another bad day and Maurice adopts a foundling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

December 26th, 1991  
5:00 am, Earth, Unknown Location  
The dark cellar Maurice had landed in was dank with mildew and poorly lit, smashed wine bottles on the ground made crackling sounds and dust swirled as a low hanging dirty mist as Maurice walked onwards, now very grateful for his newly magically reinforced shoes.  
Light when visible shone from murky torches full of enchanted silver fire and other sources of light such as holes in the ceiling creating light rays in the dust had Maurice squinting in confusion. Wary of the ragged and likely unstable holes of which origins Maurice could not even guess at he continued to quietly walk.  
The cellar corridor was large but luckily not as mazelike as he had feared, approaching the first change in architecture, a side alcove revealed a door of bars and on closer examination, bringing a Lumos to bear, the sight within caused Maurice to recoil with a full-body shudder of shock and disgust.  
Stacked from floor to ceiling, corpses. Decaying human corpses piled high from floor to ceiling in the cell horizontally stacked and pressed together like so many sardines in a small can, oozing rot and unidentified suspicious black fluid. Yet for all the scenes vileness no smell permeated to the corridor as explained away by the runes engraved on the bars giving off a dim glow, likely a barrier of some sort.  
Maurice had nothing to throw up from earlier but still he wretched bile leaving a foul taste in his mouth, his frame shuddering in primal horror and revulsion backpedaling uneasily from the cell in a crunch of glass.  
After a minute straight of heaving and keeping his eyes closed he began to force himself to calm down. Once calm Maurice made his way to the wall shakily pulling a torch of silver fire down from the wall sconce idly thinking that if he accidentally opened a secret passageway he might scream at the day he'd had, Next Solstice Maurice vowed he was just going to sleep right on through it.  
Careful of touching anything that shouldn't be there and emotionally drained Maurice forced himself to keep moving forward along the corridor this time his wand arm raised defensively and now moving as quietly as possible. There were more such cells the deeper he went, forcing him to occasionally stop and calm himself down or quickly walk past them. Each cell was in similar states to the first and to make matters worse the creepy corridor got warmer the further he went looking for an exit, adding to the creepy atmosphere.  
Reaching what looked like guard quarters in an old dungeon but with no corpse in sight, Maurice took the time to rest examining the room closely, on the wall there was a dirty looking coat of arms torn in two and barely visible for the grime. Hoping for some answers Maurice aimed at the crest and quietly and carefully incanted a spell "Reparo" the crest knitted itself back together but although he cast it numerous times, no matter what happened the crest would not become clean.  
Frustrated Maurice focused on the Latin motto at the base of the crest managing to read the inscription after some effort though his pidgin skill at Latin was insufficient in understanding what the crest meant "Sanctimonia Vincet Semper?" Maurice sounded it out wracking his brains for the translation and origin before giving up in defeat, stowing the phrase for later. Looking around at the empty room Maurice sighed before resignedly moving onwards opening the other door inched open with nary a squeak.  
Closing the door behind him silently Maurice did not see the stirrings of one of the tapestries behind him as it rustled in the windless darkness and began to move.

Meanwhile in a Secret Underground Research Laboratory in England  
The Head Unspeakable breathed out an unsteady breath carefully maneuvering himself clear of the rubble and glass and shakily getting to his feet "Rank and status, Sound off!"  
"Ow, Bear, Ow"  
"Donkey, bruised"  
"Mole, Watch for falling glass in The Prophecy Room"  
"Chameleon"  
"This is Wombat in the planetarium, Saturn is off its axis and has crashed into Jupiter, Mercury crashed into the sun, melted and has now been replaced by Neptune, Pluto and all the planets moons have joined Earth's moon in a stable Earth orbit and apparently Mars, Uranus and Venus have gone rogue, I do not know where they are."  
"Beaver, the brains have also gone missing"  
"Bulldog reporting, despite the damage there are no casualties though plenty of wounded"  
The one identified as Chameleon spoke "Bad news sir, the departments Ethereal Wards are down"  
The Head Unspeakable jumped "WHAT!? That hasn't happened since 1752 and the goblins created that moonlight-powered ward crasher and blew themselves up!"  
"Sir this incident carries the same signature as The Wish-Magic Incident" Charmeleon reported after scanning the area.  
The Head Unspeakable gave a groan audible even under the standard unspeakable concealment charms.  
"Sir?"  
"The changes have accelerated rapidly, I had hoped that they would be finished by now, but something must have jumpstarted it" pausing for a minute the Head Unspeakable rubbed his face through the charm to ease the throbbing migraine and spoke aloud questioningly without much hope in his voice "Can we get those wards back up?"  
"Negative sir" spoke Donkey  
"That means we won't be able to notice let alone track the changes anymore, we're going to be subject to them now, just like everyone else" the Head Unspeakable slumped in place with a sigh.  
"Does that mean we can go home then?" Spoke Bear carefully extracting and vanishing what looked like glass shards from his face beneath the glamour and seamlessly healing the wounds with a wand flick.  
The head unspeakable sighed "There's no point staying, apart from regular work of course, besides we sent Owl out to test the effects of the wave and nothing harmful happened to him"  
"Seemed like he got a bit smarter actually sir. He reassigned himself to the mundane Anglo-American branch and started to make some waves in their intelligence divisions" Chameleon noted dryly.  
"No big loss there I suppose, it's better than fiddling around with pseudo-magitek the rookie barely understands" spoke Mole having returned from The Prophecy Room and shaking the glass out of his the folds of his robes.

December 26th, 1991  
6:00 am Earth, Unknown Location  
Walking further along the corridor Maurice could see that there were only two cells left on either side of an ascending staircase, he paused and steeled himself moving closer hoping somewhat hopelessly of finding a single live person to tell him what was going on.  
In the leftmost cell one a single man lay in the corner of the cell dead from what looked like starvation, Maurice grimaced at the claw marks around the door signifying that the man had tried very hard to get out, a very bad way to die. Maurice shook his head and not expecting to find much he moved to examine the other cell before the exit in which he made a surprising discovery, actual movement!  
"Hello? Is anyone alive in there?" he called out quietly wary of potential inferi, not an unfounded paranoia given prior experience, the dark bundle shifted and Maurice drew a sharp breath in shock. A small child who looked to be about eight years old peeked at him with dewy blue eyes and dirty long hair opening his mouth in silent question. Maurice looked at the bars again a theory slowly building "Hang on a minute I think there's a silencing rune up" Maurice dug around in his pocket for the small folding whittling blade he kept for sharpening his writing quills and carefully began to chip away around the runes for silence. Examining his work after a minute he turned to the child in the cell "Can you say something so I know I got the right rune?"  
"Um hello?" spoke the child unsurely and roughly Maurice smiled reassuringly "I heard you that time, Give me a minute and I'll have this wide door open, My name's Maurice Bluewind and I'm eleven years old, what's your name?"  
The child spoke timidly "I don't have a name anymore and I'm seven I think? Probably?"  
Maurice squinted both at the rune cluster he was steadily unraveling and the odd questioning end statement "Well that's not right everyone should have a name, how about I give you one?"  
"You'd do that for me?" wide blue eyes full of awe only a young child could have.  
"Sure would! Just give me a while to come up with a good one once we're out of here" Because Maurice didn't want to be thinking of names when all the thoughts running through his head were about creepy corpse-strewn basements "Speaking of, I don't suppose you know where we are, do you?"  
Dewy blue eyes crossed in though followed by a adorably cute thinking pose ensuing "Um, I think we're in a place called Wiltshire, that's what I heard the woman say"  
"Woman?"  
"She's gone now, she left one day and didn't come back" Maurice was at the wrong angle to make out but the boy sounded a bit upset.  
A beat of silence as Maurice took a calming breath drawing out his next question "Soooo what is this place?"  
"It's a place where bad boys go" the boy whispered as if sharing something secret.  
Maurice forced his tone to be even and hid his fury deep "And what's so bad that you're here?"  
"I was naughty I can't make things fly or make the stick spark anymore so I was locked in here because I'm bad."  
Maurice stopped chipping away at the runes for a second wary of accidentally charging them with his own now furiously sparking magic Maurice kept his tone even, even though he wanted to yell "I don't think you're bad"  
'The people who locked you up though…'  
On that thought though "Kid did you have any visitors? Did anyone pass your cell?" The cell was nearest the exit, those dead people had to have passed the boy on the way in somehow at the very least.  
The kid nodded so hard his head looked like it would pop off with the effort "The man walked down that way a few times carrying biiiig boxes every day, then one day he left and didn't come back, He kept saying that he'd fix me, but I'm not broken though...? Am I?" Dewy blues eyes scrunched in confusion. Maurice look back down the corridor he'd come then to the cell next to the one he was working on and the emaciated corpse within the food summoning charm rune having failed on that cell at some point. Suddenly Maurice was unspeakably grateful that the monster who had stacked the wine cellar with bodies instead of something sensible like actual alcohol, hadn't let the child see that monstrosity down the corridor "Right that tears it, We're getting you out of here now, stand to the side kid I'm going to kick this door in" the boy rushed to the side of the cell and yelped as Maurice revved and with a flying bunny kicked the door, now with key locking runes scratched out, with a crash.  
Green eyes met blue and a hand was extended with a smile "Come on kid. Let's get out of this place"

Manor Ruins, Wiltshire, England 06:30, December 26th, 1991  
White peacocks awoke and scattered in a mad panic when in the ruins of the manor which had long stood silent gave a resounding creak then a great thudding crash the sound of a heavy cellar door with rusted hinges being forced wide open in slightly hysterical haste with an echoing slam.  
"Wow look at that moon!" a young child exclaimed in wonder from Maurice's side Maurice just scowled feeling his stomach rumble "I'm so hungry my stomach's starting to digest itself, let's go get something to eat" Preferably miles away from here, speaking of... "How do you like the name Miles?" the fresh air and limitless sky serving as a balm to his soul as opposed to his earlier tightly leashed terror in the stale dank underground.  
The child rolled the proposed name around in his mouth before nodding in agreement. Maurice nodded to himself and announced "Miles Bluewind it is"  
The newly named Miles blue eyes were wide in shock "You're giving me one of your names?" Maurice smiled ruffling Miles dirty blond yellow hair "I always wanted a little brother" Miles gave a choked half sob before hugging Maurice and breaking down in tears.  
It's to be noted that Maurice had grown up with very Victorian-era-esque tales of the British orphanage system and of how grateful he should be that he had the Dursley's as guardians, it was those same outdated tales that led Maurice, eleven-year-old supersonic boy wizard to adopt a seven-year-old child as his brother and somehow succeed.  
Miles yelped as Maurice picked him up in a princess carry "Come on, we should get out of here, besides I want to introduce you to my friends" both boys seemed to flicker in place before vanishing from view like mist a boom sounding in the distance with the sound of childish laughter lost in the wind.  
Mere inches away from where the boys once stood the suspicious drapery gave a shudder and robbed of its potential meal, headed towards the lights of the nearby town.


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's still the holidays.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

Gryffindor Common Room, December 26th, 1991

"Well ain't he the gosh darndest cutest little thing ah've evah seen" Miles blushed pink and ducked into Maurice's side wrapping the long robe around him like a blanket with his head peeking out like an owl mumbling a thank you shyly. Bunnie was sitting on one of the armchairs combing Susan's auburn hair carefully while Susan was sitting up straight and trying to remain as still as possible through the brushing.  
Miles was wearing one of Maurice's oversized warm winter blue jumpers and a pair of running trousers resized to him, as he'd found it cold in Hogwarts. He was also wearing one of Bunnie's yellow and excessively woolly Quidditch scarves wrapped around him like a headdress of some eastern origin.  
"Well, his parents are away so I'm looking after him." An understatement and a lie by omission considering Miles parents were missing and presumed dead considering the mess in that basement.  
"That's so nice of you" cooed Bunnie causing a pink blush of embarrassment to dust Maurice's own cheeks.  
Just then an owl soared into the common room through the open window holding a lopsided package in its talons and landed in front of Maurice with a put upon hoot.  
Disentangling the package from the owl it promptly left the way it came not waiting for a reply. Maurice checked the address on the letter "It's a late Christmas present from Sophie to us"  
"I'm a bit busy" Susan spoke as Bunnie brushed her hair aggressively in warning "Why don't you open it for me"  
Maurice shrugged and tore into the paper, revealing- "Who likes chocolate? Because we're going to be sick of it by the time Easter rolls around" -an extra-large bonus pack of chocolate frogs containing fifty Chocolate Frogs.  
"I thought you didn't like chocolate frogs?" remarked Susan as Maurice handed them out and then opened one for himself. "I don't like animated chocolate" Maurice corrected grabbing a nearby bowl and stuffing the surprised chocolate amphibian into it putting a lid on the bowl and proceeding to heat the bowl over a candle.  
Maurice picked up the card that came with the package and read its contents "Apparently Sophie wishes us a Merry Christmas and is currently at the Sky Patrol Task Force's training grounds having fun learning about them, she also offers her congratulations to Susan for her ascension to royalty." There was a brief silence.  
"Who's Celestina Warbeck?" Asked a chocolate smeared Miles who had taken to rummaging through the rapidly growing pile of chocolate frog cards.  
"She's a famous singer, I heard she's visiting Hogwarts soon to encourage new talent" spoke Neville around his own chocolate frog.  
Then Maurice grinned gesturing with his arms in the air as if unrolling a banner "I can see it now 'Neville and the Boomers'"  
Neville blushed and retorted "And what would your band be called then, Mr. Dude-itude?  
"I'm partial to The Underground myself" responded Maurice with a grin not missing a beat.  
"More like Dreamboat Express, ah can jus see the silver sequins" murmured Bunnie to Susan eying the boys causing both to muffle snickers.  
The boys eyed the giggling girls warily so Maurice decided to change the subject he turned to Susan "So you're a princess now?" Spoke Maurice gesturing at the parchment on the table as Miles quietly ate some porridge warily eying the girls for any surprise check pinching that Maurice had teased him about on the run to Hogwarts.  
Susan's gaze became remarkable fixed on an interesting far point of the wall "It hasn't been announced yet, I only got to read Aunties letter this morning"  
"And how do you feel about that?" Maurice poked not able to decipher Susan's expression.  
Susan half shrugged before sighing "Conflicted I guess, it's just been Auntie and me, I didn't know she was even seeing someone and this princess stuff… did you know they're sending over an etiquette tutor? On the 28th" Susan didn't really know what to say about that, was there actually protocol for becoming magical royalty already in place for this situation, or was Amelia just making it up as she went along?  
"I read" Maurice again pointed at the parchment.  
Bunnie chirped "Ahm now hairdresser to ah princess, mah life is strange" a subtle tug of the hairbrush a reminder to Susan to stay still so she could do her job  
"Um, this one is in a different language?" Spoke Miles handing the card to Susan meanwhile Maurice read the back of the package "Huh it's an international edition"  
"Ryotaro Tanaka" read Susan aloud "Chaser and Captain of the Japanese National Quidditch Team famed for passing the tryouts and joining the team at age twelve. At age thirteen Ryotaro Tanaka currently attends the Japanese premiere magic school, Mahoutokoro"  
Maurice spoke "I didn't know you knew Japanese"  
Susan smiled "I don't actually but if you tap the back of the cards they swap through languages"  
"All I need is Yardley Platt then that'll be my collection complete" stated Neville with a grin.  
"You can always trade with Ron Weasley when he comes back, I heard his collection is massive and includes the entire international extended edition, the perks of having world-traveling brothers." Interjected Blaise, having been quietly practicing his throwing technique on a corner wall with his shuriken and kunai.  
"Well I'm not much for collecting things" Maurice dropped the cards in a delighted Mile's lap.  
Just then Susan straightened her posture with a jerk wariness entering her tone "Did anyone figure out why the teachers didn't miss us, yesterday?"  
"-And how did they not notice the third-floor corridor caving in?" supplied Neville idly attention half on the group and half on chocolate.  
"That was nawt mah fault" Bunnie stated her face impassive though her eye gained a persistent twitch as though she'd repeated herself a dozen times. Susan flinched as her hair now in an exquisite multilayer Celtic braid was harshly tugged as Bunnie put the last clip in.  
"An unholy combination of a magical alcohol-fuelled magical Christmas party gone wrong and really easily biddable House Elves willing to keep the booze flowing?" Blaise offered wryly.  
Having been in another dimension at the time Maurice wanted to ask what he'd missed in the hours he'd been missing, he really, really did, but then Miles squirmed into his side with dewy eyes with a sudden request for a snowball fight and his focus shifted.

Hogwarts Great Lake Shore  
"Gotcha!" Shouted Susan gleeful as Maurice hopped away with a shriek and freezing snow sliding down his robe. Bunnie laughed rearming herself with a snowball and attempted to pelt Neville in the face with it.  
Miles giggled then shrieked as Maurice mock charged in him in retaliation burying the laughing child up to his knees in a show drift, Maurice's eyes widened as he felt himself skid on the icy ground, over the small embankment and into the lake which was at this point frozen solid.  
Getting his balance Maurice began to cautiously skate and slide around on the ice, "Hey the lake is completely frozen solid come on over!"  
"I don't know how to ice skate!" Shouted Susan over the distance with Miles right beside her cheering Maurice on. "I'll teach you then!" Maurice shouted back gleefully spinning on the ice. Heading back to shore rapidly Maurice used the momentum to jump the embankment doing a forward flip and landing on his feet in front of Susan holding out a hand to her. "Come on, I'll show you how" Susan felt her face warm at his carefree grin and gave in with a smile "Ok but if I fall I'm pulling you down with me"  
"I'd never let you fall Sue" spoke Maurice sincerely and for a moment of silence neither knew what to say to each other until Susan felt a tug at her sleeve looking at Miles who was bashfully trying to get her attention "Can I learn too?"  
Susan didn't get to reply as Maurice scooped Mile up into the air and stood him on the ice carefully beside him "Of course you can little bro before you know it you'll be skating rings around even me"  
"Oi, Sugar! Race you to the other side of the lake, most tricks before the finish line wins" Bunnie had gone on the ice behind him and was doing her own sweeping spins and jumps earning her own cheering section in Miles. Maurice grinned and turned to Neville "You want to come with?" Neville shook his head "I was actually going to pick some water plants from the shore and according to Bunnie I'm the judge of the race"  
"Wheeeeheeheeeee!" Laughed Miles as Bunnie propelled Maurice's little bro around the lake as fast as she could "Look at me brother! I'm ice skating! This is really fun!"  
Maurice laughed surprised and pleased at how fast he'd picked it up and hollered back "Just remember to look where you're going!"  
Spotting Susan tentatively stepping on the ice Maurice skated closer grasping her hands and pulling her forward with a yelp "Maurice don't! I'm going to fall!"  
"Not while I'm here" Maurice come on move your legs about. It's really easy once you get the hang of it." Slowing to a near stop but still moving Maurice leaned close "Open your eyes Sue" Susan gasped as he pulled her through a slow circuit of the icy lake "Maurice, thanks" he grinned a tilted his head towards Bunnie and Miles. "Feeling up to joining that race?" Susan laughed "Maybe after more practice?" Bunnie skated past the two with Miles held over her head in both arms screaming joyfully "Wheeee!" causing Susan and Maurice to chuckle "A lot more practice."

Gryffindor Common Room  
Maurice smiled as Miles snoozed curled up on the large sofa in the common room closest to the roaring fire, exhausted from playing in the snow all day, Pulling a blanket over the kid careful of waking him up Maurice smiled warmly happy that Miles wasn't letting what had happened to him pull him down, indeed Miles had bounced back from tragedy with a vengeance.  
Just then Susan entered the common room quietly approaching the duo smiling warmly at the sleeping Miles. "He's really tired himself out"  
Maurice smiled "Today was fun"  
"Sooo-" Susan's nervous tone perked Maurice's curiosity, dimming his smile.  
"-I was wondering if you wanted to go skating again"  
That surprised Maurice "Now?" it was nearly midnight!  
Susan nodded firmly "Now"  
Maurice looked at the sleeping Miles, not even a cannon blast charm would wake him up sleeping that deeply "Okay then let's go"

Secret Clubhouse – Name Pending  
Susan pushed open the exit door to the school grounds, the overhang appearing full of glimmering ice spears, the harbor water was frozen solid. Light refracting off every icy surface from the few enchanted torches dotted around the entrance and the pier.  
The lake here was also frozen solid as if made of polished white marble "It's beautiful isn't it" Susan lowered herself to the ice taking a careful lap on the ice, joined by Maurice a second later.  
"Yes, it is" the duo circled each other on the ice for a few minutes before Maurice spoke up "What's wrong Susan?" The use of her first name caused Susan to shake "Sue?"  
"Tomorrow it all changes" She spoke "I'll be a princess, everything I do and say will be judged"  
"Not until the students come back" Maurice reminded her lightly.  
Susan ignored him and looked beseechingly into his green eyes "What if I mess it all up?"  
Maurice moved closer placing a hand on her shoulder meeting "Then we'll still be here for you. Bunnie, Neville, Miles.. and me, If you mess up then we'll pull you back to your feet. If someone's mean to you then we'll be right there hexes at the ready. You're our friend Sue, You're my first friend and my best friend"  
Susan gave a watery smile.  
"Us too y'hear" Yawned a voice from the bank startling the two who looked over to see Bunnie and a blearily eyed Neville who looked half-awake.  
"I thought you were asleep?" Questioned Susan surprised and slightly embarrassed.  
Neville answered with a yawned explanation "Miles wanted hot chocolate and couldn't find you, then found me instead, woke me up, we woke Bunnie up and we went looking for you" Bunnie skated on the ice gathering the surprised Susan into a hug which was joined by Maurice and Neville.  
"We were ere first, Dalin. No one judges ya without hankering fer a good ol thumping from us" Susan shook as she found herself in a group hug the group went down in a heap on the ice courtesy of Neville.  
Returning to the common room together Bunnie and Neville split saying they were going to sleep Maurice merely nodded going over to the drowsy-looking Miles who was sipping a large mug of hot chocolate.  
"Are you my aunt?" Susan startled at Miles question.  
"What makes you ask?"  
"Well, You and big brother like each other, so.."  
Susan blushed very lightly as did Maurice, the firelight making it look as if a trick of the light.  
"It's true!" Miles accused pointing at her face.  
Susan smiled softly ruffling Miles hair fondly causing him to squawk in dismal "If you want me to be your Aunt Susan then I'd be honored"  
"You didn't answer my question" Miles whined indignantly.  
"Oooh, is that hot chocolate, yummy!" Spoke Maurice gleefully picking up Miles mug neatly distracting the kid.  
"Big brother! That's my hot chocolate!" Maurice and Miles descended into friendly bickering.

London  
Angelina Johnson hummed as she unraveled the odd cheese wheel patterned paper packaging on the parcel, having gathered the courage to investigate the present from the Weasley twins, she was surprised to find a large egg the size of an ostrich's egg. It was completely white apart from a light yellow dusting on the top and large blue spots all over, now confused at the odd gift Angelina picked up the card and read it aloud "Introducing Weasley patented companion, the next step up in low maintenance pets, If treated well the companion will live forever." Reading the rest of the manual then looking at the egg then the packaging she stated seriously "When you hatch I think I'll call you Cheese" Angelina laughed and continued to put away the moving boxes.

Gryffindor Common Room, December 27th  
"Aunt Su? I painted you a picture" Mile presented the picture proudly a smudge of purple paint on his cheek. The painting was of a colossal willow tree as if the viewer was standing beneath its vast trailing branches looking up.  
"Oh that's beautiful, you are very talented Miles" commented Susan very impressed at the painting. "Thanks! Big Brother helped me make it by charming the oil paint to behave for me" Magical oil paint named so for its enchant-ability tended to result in paintings that mirrored how the user through the end result should look, real masterpieces required strict mental acuity to create something nice, making it all the more impressive that a child had managed to create this, opposed to an eighty-year-old professional wizard painter.  
Miles blushed and explained, "It's the Whomping Willow that Mr. Ninja Detective Blaise told me about, I thought you could put it in the clubhouse?"  
"Nrk!" Susan suppressed a laugh at Blaise's new title, something that Maurice had no doubt put him up to "I have a better idea, let's make it the door guardian"  
Miles tilted his head to the side in though "Mr. Ninja Detective Blaise said that the real one stops moving if you press the big knothole at the bottom!"  
Susan smiled eyes on the painting "There's an idea, Miles can you go grab Maurice and the others."

The Secret Clubhouse – Name?

"For too long our clubhouse and retreat from the other students has gone unnamed, now with the assistance of Miles Bluewind, I give you our newly christened secret clubhouse" With a wand swish the ribbon cut and the drape fell from the entryway revealing the now animated wizard painting of the Whomping Willow which began shaking violently shaking in its frame.  
"Welcome to The Knothole as painted by Miles Bluewind" Susan poked the large knot on the tree with her wand, the tree froze and the painting swung inwards. Maurice, Bunnie, Neville, Blaise, and Fred cheered "Well done Little Brother" complemented Maurice as the group gathered around to inspect the painting.


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lifehack - Don't be mean to your customer base or the people who control your money.  
> A tutor arrives for the princess, and conspiracies abound within conspiracies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

The Knothole, December 28th

Miles kicked his legs in the air as he read his way through the large pile of books on the table in The Knothole. Maurice himself had finally dug out the legal papers the Goblins had given him all that time ago and was browsing them for information. Now, no matter how much he wanted too Maurice could not keep Miles at school with him, otherwise, he'd be taken away, therefore alternatives had to be found. Only one minimal risk solution presented itself and had only presented itself because of Maurice's unwitting actions when acting as a freight delivery service before Hogwarts, despite how much he tried to forget the incident.

In his early career as a glorified delivery service, Maurice has gone through all sorts of employers, and for the most part, they had all been amiable businessmen and women, the extremely memorable exception had been so nasty that Maurice had immediately resigned and offered his service to her rival.  
Wendy Slinkhard after the near failure of her own potions book series to launch had, though schoolyard connections managed to come into ownership of a chain of apothecaries called J. Pippin's Potions after the death of the previous owners to illness. Her bitterness at her failure as an authoress had turned her into a thoroughly unpleasant person further amplified by her already hardliner stance on blood purity. On the first day of the job at the Diagon Alley branch Maurice had delivered a vat of Graphorn Horn powder on the dot and had been treated to a rant on blood purity for no reason which was followed by Slinkhard trying to cheat him out of his pay because apparently, his impure blood meant he wasn't reliable.  
Managing to get his full pay by dint of magical contract Maurice had quit on the spot in disgust and had not even ten minutes later been approached by Mr. Jigger the owner of the relatively nearby Slug & Jiggers Apothecary who had overheard Miss Slinkhard's ranting and offered him a job. Maurice's new job had been very lucrative and as a result of his speed and reliability, the Apothecary was able to obtain the freshest rare ingredients of high quality to such a point that J. Pippin's Potions had slowly been out-competed in service and customer volume. Not that it hadn't before because there had been some concern that Slinkhard had been selling her supplies with varying quality depending on blood status. With the new cash flow Slug & Jiggers had opened a new branch in Hogsmeade Village and with its more present staff quickly became a place where Hogwarts students shopped exclusively in the aftermath of their potions disasters, to the detriment of the Hogsmeade branch of J. Pippin's Potions. With the razing of Diagon Alley and losing that branch of her business, Miss Slinkhard had gone into financial dire straits not having the business know-how on how to salvage her failing business therefore Miss Slinkhard had been trying to sell her potions shop in Hogsmeade to no avail as her asking price was too high and no one wanted to do business with her for fear of a loud blood purity rant that she'd become infamous for. By the time Maurice had handed in his notice to attend Hogwarts her business was in an unsolvable freefall forcing her to sell through the goblins which she disliked on principle and in-person loudly, which meant that they'd price gouged the woman's sale as much as they could in spite.

Maurice glanced at the Gringotts papers, it had been surprising to find that his newly opened account had been topped off with the interest from a family vault. One he'd had no idea existed until today, the money was more than enough to buy the place but he'd have to convert it into a home instead of a shop otherwise he wouldn't be able to afford the place in addition to the Ministry's retailer tax which hadn't been reformed yet, a titbit he'd shared with Susan that had her hurriedly searching for some parchment for a letter to her aunt.  
Included in the purchase was the plot of land where the London branch had once stood, that he could rent out to the Ministry as an apparition and Floo point as suggested by the goblins downright helpful invoice when he'd queried about possibilities. So theoretically Maurice could buy the business under its actual market value with the help of the goblins, convert the Hogsmeade building into a house for Miles and himself, and the London branch into a general transportation hub. And due to only renting out the London spot he and anyone he wanted could have free transportation to anywhere in the United Kingdom possibly Europe which fit in well with his actual eventual travel plans and if Maurice had a home in Hogsmeade he could become a day student taking Miles to a mundane school in London or wherever before he himself went to classes then looking after him at night.  
Nodding to himself Maurice looked up at Miles and smothered a chuckle, Miles was sitting upside down on the armchair reading a book with his tongue stuck out to the side and his face scrunched up in concentration.  
Maurice looked at the others in the room then at Miles "Miles I have to go do something important do you mind if I leave you here for a while with Susan?"  
Miles looked over at Susan and nodded "Ok. She's nice" inwardly thinking 'and she doesn't pinch my cheeks'  
Maurice nodded getting up and walking over to Susan "Susan do you mind watching Miles for an hour? I have to go talk with Professor Flitwick."  
Susan shrugged "Its no trouble, he's adorable and so well behaved, come back soon-ish though. This "royal tutor" of mine is probably going to bore him to tears" the slight waver in her voice betrayed her nerves, placing his hand on her shoulder Maurice gave it a small squeeze and a wordless smile, Susan smiled back as Maurice zoomed through the portrait hole.

Headmaster's Tower, Gargoyle Corridor, Second Floor  
Madam Mafalda Hopkirk harbored no hard feelings towards Amelia Bones, Mafalda had seen the way the wind was blowing in the Ministry restructuring and had handed in her resignation in the early days. In truth working at the Ministry in the Improper Use of Magic Office had been a side job in importance to her real passion. Not many people knew that Mafalda had an unlikely Mastery in History both the magical and non-magical world, Mafalda was a distance tutor to many students. A one-point Mafalda had been hired to teach the newest Muggleborn and half-blood ministry employees about pureblood etiquette a subset of her passion that Mafalda found truly boring and rife with examples of contradictions and stagnancy. Her joy was in her students in the Antiquity Association, a hidden magical sub-department of the Royal Historical Society and other such organizations. Truly since the enthronement, the first enthronement of a magical monarch, the entire society, and its overseas branches had gone into a tizzy.  
This letter though had Mafalda steaming in place with smugness for days and undoubtedly lasting for the next following weeks, Amelia had clearly returned Mafalda's sentiment if she was hiring her personally to tutor the princess. Mafalda wanted to jump up and rub her new position in the faces of the others but knew that such an act would be contrary to her job's strict confidentiality requirements. Her silence was even remarked upon positively by Ogden one of the society's financial sponsors and Amelia's husband to be the future king of British magical's and that's when she knew that Ogden had been the one to recommend her. As a member of the society, Ogden had access to many of the books the group had gathered and written, and while not being a contributor of the written word the man had been a good sounding board having been the society's most voracious readers of history.  
So here she was at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry a place where her most contact had been with the students in the form of letters about their magical misdemeanors. Her own stint as a student had left the young Mafalda unenthused, Cuthbert Binns had had that mind dimming effect affect even when she's been a child. Whereas Mafalda who's passion even then had been history had been horrified at the quality of his lessons but instead of sleeping through his classes like most of the students, she had simply not turned up to class instead spelling the ghosts registry to register her as present and then moved off to do self-study. The fruits of her self study being a nice calligraphy Outstanding grade with distinction in her N.E.W.T.S Examination results letter.  
"I understand that the Queen wants you here to teach one of our students"  
While caught in her ruminations Mafalda did not jump, Minerva McGonagall was not as intimidating as she used to be.  
"Is our education in some ways deficient in the eyes of the crown?"  
Delicately put "That's a question you must ask yourself as you should as an educator of this fine institution, However it is her royal majesties opinion that Cuthbert Binns cannot correctly convey courtly manners and diplomatic protocols as well as the current diplomatic landscape to an adequate standard" 'if at all' sniped Mafalda silently as McGonagall grimaced.  
It's important to note that after Mafalda had graduated Hogwarts another student had tried to pull the same trick as she had in history class, unfortunately, and by chance, Mafalda had forgotten to remove the attendance charm on Binns attendance sheet. The resulting conflagration of confliction spells had revealed that the highest-scoring history student in decades had been a result of pure self-study and brought Hogwarts international rating for History down one grade, the school had been forced by magic to refund part of Mafalda tuition as it had never been used. More than one Professor of the day had been displeased to put it lightly, the board of governors had been furious.  
"Would you like directions to your student" McGonagall bit out more sharply than she'd intended, Hopkirk smiled beatifically victory simmering beneath the thin veneer of a smile "That will not be necessary I will find her myself" Tracking charms were easy after tracking most of the magical United Kingdom's population for underage magic for the past who knows how many years.

Headmasters Office  
Returning to the headmaster's office, now her office McGonagall reminded herself with a sigh, the Scotswoman abruptly came face to face with an unexpected visage that disrupted her train of thought entirely.  
As transparent as the day after he'd died, Professor Cuthbert Binns in front of her desk as if waiting for her, before she could utter a word the ghost glowed with an eerie gold light freezing the Headmistress in place, her eyes staring ahead dull and blank.  
"Now really was that necessary old friend?" spoke the Sorting Hat from his perch wryly.  
Eyes clear and focused Cuthbert moved close to the immobilized teacher "Of course it was"  
"You, sir, are a monster" Professor Armando Dippet intoned evenly in condemnation gazing darkly from his portrait helplessly.  
The ghost grinned "So you say and have said since the day I killed you and cursed every portrait in the castle to silence" his gleeful tone causing every person in the office to bristle in their portraits.  
"You've even befouled a priceless Hogwarts artifact" grumbled Professor Phineas Nigellus Black from his own portrait nodding at the sorting hat.  
Binns sneered "On that account, I am innocent, dear Phineas. I simply granted my dear friend eyes with which to see"  
"And the things I see!" the Hat laughed "It's laughable that you entrust a mere slip of fabric with your children's future's especially one so easily possessed." The hat shook in place as if shaking in excitement.  
"The founders would be rolling in their graves" spoke the portrait of former headmaster Giffard Abbott solemnly.  
Binns rolled his eyes and in a move as impossible as it looked physically moved the curtains of that portrait closed.  
After a moment of silence, the Hat spoke up "How goes the search?"  
Binns brought a transparent hand up and clenched it into a fist "Closer than ever, this astral form and the wards own acceptance of my authority as a professor allow me unprecedented access to the castle and grounds" Gaining form by the second Binns stretched his newly corporeal and visible legs with a gusty sigh then frowned "Still! It baffles me how such an inept shut-in like Fronsac managed to lose The Key so thoroughly, I honestly expected to find it in his sock drawer" Binns scowled darkly as he worked the kinks out of his shoulders.  
"His portrait knows nothing, It is possible that he obliviated himself of the knowledge" the Sorting Hat pointed out.  
Binns finished stretching and shook his head "Unlikely, I spend years cosseting up to that privileged little popinjay, he shared everything he knew, but I'll take it under advisement"  
"And the search for the Leylines?" the hat prompted.  
"Hidden" snarled Binns "If it were at all possible I'd swear they were under Fidelius" it went unsaid that the Fidelius charm had been invented after the founders time.  
"Anyway onto business" prompted the Sorting Hat gazing at the paralyzed Scotswoman, Binns nodded lifting the hat from its perch and replaced McGonagall own witches hat with the possessed Sorting hat.  
"Hmmm" mumbled the Sorting Hat as it rifled through the headmistresses thoughts like a filing cabinet. "Interesting but ultimately useless, Albus was so much better informed, although that bit about magical royal dynasty is interesting"  
"Magical royal dynasty?" questioned Binns in disbelief.  
The hat ruffled his hem "I thought you would have heard of it in your classes?"  
Binns shrugged "Hardly, I leave that to a recording, I hear some of the students have started to record the lessons to sell to the younger years though so I may have to switch it up a bit. I spend the time scanning for that demented little key and the Leylines"  
"Remember Cuthbert, Free me and I'll show you the power I once commanded." Spoke the Sorting Hat.  
Binns smiled, it wasn't a nice smile and echoed the Sorting Hats statement aloud "You'll be free soon enough friend then the entire world will know your power"

Elsewhere  
Looking at the sign on the doorway of Flitwick's office Maurice huffed and ran to the third floor reaching it in less than a minute and coming to a halt, walking the last two meters Maurice watched Flitwick and Sprout gesticulate and point in front of an open door.  
"What even can blast through magically reinforced granite like that?" huffed Professor Sprout in irritation, who would much rather have been tending her new Wiggentree sapling.  
"An angry Cerberus, a truly excessive volume of Trinitrotoluene or possibly Rubeus" Flitwick mused lips twitching. Sprout huffed closed the door spelling it shut and putting up a sign warning about unstable masonry before walking off leaving Flitwick to his thoughts.  
Flitwick then spotted Maurice "Ah! Mr. Bluewind nice day isn't it"  
Maurice nodded to hide his smirk whilst silently resolving to ask the others what they'd done to the third floor even if it killed him "Relatively, I wanted to talk to you about changing my boarder status to a day student, I'm needed at home during the early mornings and nights to look after my younger brother"  
Flitwick looked surprised his expression changing to one of seriousness "Let us talk in my office"

The Knothole, Hogwarts  
It took Mafalda approximately twenty minutes using a modified supersensory charm to locate the sound of muffled voices behind a wall, a quick look around revealed a painting of a familiar hazardous tree from the grounds that looked to be freshly painted, an oddity when every painting in the castle was at least fifty years old minimum.  
Mafalda's lips quirked in a triumphant smile "Clever but not clever enough" regardless though Mafalda detected some unfamiliar warding and settled for knocking no need to invite unknown danger.  
Inside the clubhouse, Susan flinched at the loud knock meeting the gaze of an equally surprised Miles "I thought this place was hidden?" Miles asked Susan who hesitantly replied "Some of the wards must have gone down when we installed the portrait, whoops"  
A reply came from behind the portrait "It helps if you ward against sound and heat emissions in a drafty castle actually as well as making the painting look older, though this was a good attempt, may I come in princess?" "Who are you?" asked Miles "I am Madam Mafalda Hopkirk, the tutor that the royal majesties assigned to the princess"  
Susan and Miles exchanged looks there really wasn't much point in hiding anymore so wordlessly Susan opened the door.

Flitwick's Office  
Seated on a plush floating armchair and animatedly waving the first year's timetable Flitwick continued to speak "…Really the issue depends on how far away your home is and if you'll get to all your classes on time."  
Maurice stretched in place as he spoke confidently "My house is in Hogsmeade so it's barely even a minute's jog, we're also getting floo access installed before term starts."  
Flitwick nodded enthusiastically closing a filing case and open another with a wand wave "Then I see no problems, You can bring your little brother over to Hogwarts on the weekends and you can also bring your friends with you pending their parent's permission and good conduct at Hogwarts, I have the papers somewhere" Flitwick rifled through one of his cabinets in his office pulling out a few slips and placing them on the table.  
"This also covers visits to Homemade so if you and your friends behave you won't need to renew your permission slip come third year. Again this depends on good conduct so have a read-through of this document and come back with it signed and I'll begin setting up a special floo connection." Maurice nodded and left the classroom.

The Romanian Dragon Sanctuary  
Looking at the trio composed of her two red-headed sons and a friendly half-giant Molly Weasley felt nothing but doubt at their proposed plan "I don't know Charlie, hunting in the mountains? Are you sure Ronald is up to it"  
Charlie Weasley nodded affirmative "It's okay mother! Really! Besides every boy needs a hobby and I'll be right there with Hagrid"  
"But archery?" Molly implored her second oldest son eying the longbow Ronald was clutching like a lifeline.  
"It's not as if he can cast spells here, besides think of it, if he's good enough you could be eating rabbit, pheasant or even deer every season," Charlie spoke with certainty gesticulating the entire time then subtly poking Hagrid who was fiddling around with his own trusty crossbow.  
The large scruffy man spoke, "I's righ' useful Molly, I once got a grizzly bear, made me'self a blanket w it too, had alf a mind to sleep righ' on through winter." Hagrid gesturing with a shovel-like hand smiling at the memory.  
Molly looked at the three dubiously "Well, you return Ronald in one piece or you'll both 'sleep' through winter." Molly promised, looking far from the typical dedicated housewife with seven children and suddenly somehow much more terrifying.  
"Yes ma'am!" the trio chorused in completely even voices that didn't sound at all in the least bit shrill.

An hour later in the nearby mountains  
The forest was dim with the sunlight flittering through the trees, the distant roars of dragons, and the silent crunching of snow beneath the trio's feet lent the area a surreal atmosphere.  
"Ye remember what I told ye, Ron?"  
Ron nodded "Aim with both eyes open" his bow was raised and the arrow prepared to be drawn at the sight of movement.  
Charlie repeated something he's said earlier "and never point a-"  
"-Drawn bow at anything you don't intend to kill" finished Ron with a nod looking around only for Hagrid to hush the duo pointing ahead "oer there"  
All three froze, slowly Ron drew and nocked an arrow, Charlie shot Ron a questioning look which he returned with a smirk moving forward silently. Charlie and Hagrid shared looks and circled around flanking Ron as they'd discussed.  
The creature wandered within range and into sight, without hesitation Ron fired.

The Knothole, Hogwarts  
Sitting on the exceptionally comfy chaise lounge chair the historian turned royal tutor talked of the timetable she'd spent the last few days spent coming up with for the princess. "These tutoring lessons will fill up your usual history slot and the 2 pm to 4 pm timeslot on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday"  
Mafalda Hopkirk had made herself at home in The Knothole and had been summarily shocked at discovering the blatant hole in the wards leading to the harbor exit, then contrarily bid Susan and her group to keep it secret as an excellent escape route.  
Still, the lecture continued "As the first magical princess of the United Kingdoms, you will be expected to possess skill in the political arena as well as the social graces such as riding, Elocution, singing and dancing. Sewing and knitting are optional but have been found to create good dexterity for wanded spell work."  
Susan was starting to look dizzy at the ever-expanding list so Mafalda relented.  
"Now I don't expect you to spend much time on these subjects as I've been informed of your enhanced memory ability" and Mafalda was very envious of that ability.  
"Can my friends attend as well?" asked Susan quickly, if only so she wasn't so alone.  
Mafalda perhaps seeing through Susan's reasoning nodded "If that is your wish and as long as they aren't disruptive you will need a partner for dancing after all" The last part was said with a knowing smile causing Susan to blush.  
"More seriously you will be learning about constitutional history and military matters and the baser subject of financial management," Mafalda thought it spoke well of the Princesses maturity that she did not groan like the average eleven-year-old at the very dry subject matter she was being told to memorize.  
Susan blinked and spoke with a considering look on her face "Maurice will probably need that more than I do"  
This made Hopkirk quirk an eyebrow curiously "How so?"  
Susan explained "He's recently come into some inheritance and he's been moaning about legalese involved" that was interesting and potentially dangerous thought Hopkirk.  
"Then it will be a lesson for you both if he consents and an example of Gringotts contracting work."  
How to ask about such a delicate subject without sounding rude?, in the end, Hopkirk decided to be blunt "Is he a descendant of one of the old families?" It wouldn't do if he was one of the more traditional purebloods mired in outdated traditions and bigotry therefore Susan's answer was a relief.  
"Maurice told me he never met them, he was as surprised as the goblins when he found he had a vault from an unknown ancestor. He pretty much uses it as a trust fund as he's no big spender"  
"Prudent" spoke Mafalda "Please tell me more about my potential future students and please, call me Mafalda we shall be seeing a lot of each other in the following years"

Romania, Dragoslavele Market, December 29th  
Unspeakable Owl glamoured to look like a non-descript tourist with dirty blond and grey faded short hair and a handlebar mustache stirred his spoon idly not really appreciating the sour soup despite the waiter's glances and local custom. When the gazes of his watchers abruptly lost interest he pushed the bowl away and leaned back in his chair with a sigh as the seat opposite him was abruptly filled "You could have erected an anti-Muggle ward before I got here you know" the accent was Hungarian Owl noted to himself as he looked at the Romanian Unspeakable his contact in this foreign country. Owl needed no time to think of a rebuttal "And miss sampling this lovely sour soup? I think not" the Romanian Unspeakable chuckled "Your obscuring charm must have failed for a moment I didn't think it was possible to hear so much disgust in a voice."  
"To business then?" spoke Owl not agreeing or disagreeing with the statement.  
The Romanian Unspeakable nodded and leaned back in his seat "Indeed, I'll get straight to the point the short of it is that the underground is in disarray"  
This was no revelation to Owl who scoffed "The Magical Underground is always in disarray, what do you expect from 2 knut killers-for-hire, dropouts and wannabee smuggler kingpins?"  
Unfazed by Owl's blunt dismissal the Romanian Unspeakable shook his head and elaborated "Magical's are going missing en mass, light, dark, beast. For a while, we thought it was some dark wizard recruiting followers from the dregs of society…"  
"and" prodded Owl wanting more details as the tale grew more worrying.  
"We think a group reminiscent of the old Thule Society is capturing and dissecting magical's though for what purpose we don't know."  
"Why contact us?" Owl knew why but kept his silence unwilling to admit to espionage on his nation's behalf.  
The Romanian Unspeakable slid a folder across the table "Some of the bodies dumped were from your ministries jurisdiction"  
Owl leafed through the document "A good many but not all" indeed many of the bodies listed had different nationalities.  
"We're in talks with the other Unspeakable's" the Romanian Unspeakable added idly.  
"A joint task force then?" Theorized Owl aloud.  
"The ICW have the Bumblebee stirring up the hierarchy for a smokescreen and his own mission, all we're doing is searching through the silt for a diamond."  
"And if you find that diamond?" Owl asked faux curiously making it obvious he was fishing for a particular reply as the Romanian Unspeakable side-eyed him.  
"All information will be equally shared between our organizations of course" the Romanian Unspeakable then paused and slid another document across the table "on an unrelated note your Queen Bones has really stirred the hornet's nest, We haven't had this much fun in years"  
Owl withheld his grin through the laughter was conveyed well enough in his tone "I thought your group would be disgruntled?"  
The Romanian Unspeakable laughed a deep rumbling thing "Please, Any wizard worth their wand who has researched arcane magic as deeply as our groups would know that blood purity is a pure lie. It's entertaining to watch the purists choke on their ideals when the home of blood purity itself discards the nonsense." Both Unspeakable's chuckled, as the Romanian Unspeakable made to leave he paused "Along with the abductions there have been several unverified allegations of grave robbing, our ministry is not yet sure if it's a local problem or an international one"  
"I'll keep an eye out, thanks for the warning" spoke Owl. None of the known spells or rituals that included corpses in their making were anywhere near good or wholesome in nature and came attached with a well-founded wariness.

The Romanian Dragon Sanctuary, December 30th  
"You're not going back to Hogwarts Rubeus?" spoke Bill sounding let down, having fond memories of the friendly groundskeeper.  
Ron was laughing loudly with the dragon tamers whilst Ginny admired the massive red stag slowly turning on the spit, Percy was watching as the local tanner made quick work of the pelt, for once using magic in an otherwise traditionally non-magical pursuit, as the tanner had said "Yer boys leaving tomorrow, be a shame if he 'ad to leave this magnificent trophy behind, a fine shot that boy, right in the throat, gonna make him a jacket and boots out of this, maybe line it with some marmot the other boy brought back.. hmm"  
Hagrid shook his head eyes glinting in the firelight "I want ta, But ah've been offered a place ere with all the beautiful beasties and ah've made new friends" Hagrid saw no need to mention that the laxer laws of the Romanian Ministry had allowed him to get a new wand of his own, nor did he need to mention that working with dragons was a lifetime dream of his and now he got paid astronomically well to do it.  
Hagrid grinned side-eyeing the redhead beside him "Asides Charlie needs someone ta watch out fer im"  
Charlie looked faux outraged "Who was it that had to bandage you up after that Vipertooth, eh?" here Charlie gained a malicious grin making Hagrid grow pale behind his beard "or what about that time with those poodles, the aardvark, that one Palestinian bloke and the-" Hagrid cut Charlie off with a below heard clear across the barracks "Point is yer all a bunch o crazy critters an a wouldn't have it any other way!" The other dragon tamers in the barracks cheered Hagrid's statement and the party went on drowning out anything Charlie was about to say. "Looks like they're having fun" spoke a wry voice from behind Molly "Arthur! You're back" spoke Molly Weasley to her husband happily "How did your presentation go?" the redheaded patriarch grinned "I'm confident that it went well" Molly kissed Arthur and smiled at him "I'm glad to see that the ministry finally saw your worth promoting you to a diplomatic position"  
Arthur smiled back and began fiddling with his backpack removing a cloth-wrapped bundle "I enjoyed it and I got you a present on the way home" Molly accepted the bundle and carefully unwrapped the cloth, revealing a large Romanian recipe book with gold trim. "Oh, Arthur you shouldn't have." Molly hugged him and Arthur smiled back "You said you liked some of the local dishes so I thought you'd like it."

Unknown Location  
The cavern stank of mildew and rot in contrast to its otherwise immaculate appearance, massive carved statues harkening back to the Aztecs and beyond were sunk into the walls.  
Electronic lights shone from the darkness and in the darkness sat a man, he seemed to have been gazing into space with eyes unseeing yet slowly color returned with consciousness and the figure blinked yellow eyes that shone like fire in the darkness behind small round spectacles.


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maurice and Miles move into their new home the day before New Year, antics in America, Ron gets an image change, and covert arson happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling

Hogsmeade Village, Former site of J. Pippin's Potions, December 31st, 1991

Snowflakes spiraled down peacefully from the sky in the quiet village, a deep layer of snow, making the village resemble a picturesque Christmas postcard of a rural village in the countryside "So what do you think Miles?" asked Maurice somewhat nervously standing in front of the red oak varnished door on the Hogsmeade high street as he absently fiddled with a strand of blue hair. The former apothecary had been completely remodeled on the outside and the inside, its storefront window had been stripped of its gaudy green paint and lettering. The interior had had most of its accessories sold off or removed by the previous owner and in its place, Maurice, with the help of goblin contacts had sourced a thick blue carpet for all the rooms minus the kitchen and bathroom which were tiled a plain white.  
The walls themselves were a plain white in all rooms of the house pending a democratic vote between the two brothers on paint colors. Both bedrooms on the second floor had large four-poster beds with criminally soft mattresses as well as empty bookshelves lining the wall waiting to be filled with books, toys, and other knickknacks.  
The ground floor was an open plan living room attached to the kitchen and any bare wall was concealed by large as of yet empty oak bookcases. The living room area had some plush chairs and a small settee in front of a large fireplace.  
To the right of the living room, there was a separate room that had been converted into a study and Floo room with its own fireplace.  
At the back of the house between the living room and the kitchen island was a staircase leading upstairs and downstairs and to the left of that, there was a well-furnished large bathroom.  
The second floor of the house up the stairs consisted of a long hallway leading into three rooms, Miles bedroom was the first door immediately upon exiting the stairway, further along the landing was the door to another converted study with a large half-moon windowed balcony. Before the furthest door at the end of the corridor which held Maurice's bedroom, there was a ceiling hatch that could be pulled down to form a ladder leading to the attic. The attic was just an empty unused storage space waiting to be filled and had not been converted into anything yet.  
The already spacious building even had a large basement at the very bottom of the stairs that quite obviously had been used to be a potions laboratory or wine cellar but now like the attic was waiting to be stocked and filled with other things. Considering its size Maurice had a sneaking suspicion that the basement extended slightly under the street.  
The house had four fireplaces one in each bedroom, one in the living room and one in the ground floor study designated as the Floo room.  
Maurice let Miles run ahead into the house with an exclamation and hung up his coat on the rack the indoor welcome mat designed to vanish dirt from a person's shoes as they stepped on it.  
Maurice had thought that he'd feel a bit conflicted about doing this, he had a home of his own now that wasn't the Dursley's and enough noise to fill the emptiness with welcoming chatter on behalf of Miles. No more cold glares and reluctant acknowledgments, the house was pretty empty right now but that would change given time. "Welcome home little brother" spoke Maurice from Miles bedroom door. Maurice laughed at the ballistic yellow-headed missile that was Miles collided at speed driving the breath out of Maurice with a happy yell of "Welcome Home Big Brother!" Miles laughed relieved at the fact Miles liked the place and teasingly noogied the kid causing a storm of giggles.  
An hour later, having ordered some breakfast food from The Three Broomsticks for the both of them as Maurice hadn't gone food shopping yet the two brothers continued arranging various school books and items on the shelves. Miles was reading a random book that had caught his interest while Maurice now sat in the upstairs study comparing notes taken from a book in the library with the results his scanning charm was throwing up. The pendant bought from a London flea market several years ago for reasons Maurice no longer quite remembered was simple in nature a silvery triple-headed guitar and made of pewter which was a relatively okay metal for holding enchantments though not the best. Maurice had after much research layered the pendant with a subtle compulsion to make people think that the wearer was of legal age as well as adding a mild suggestibility charm to make non-magical people not question any lack of paperwork pertaining to Miles as non-magical's were just nosy like that.  
Maurice fully intended to enroll Miles in a mundane school sometime this year or next term as the magical primary schools had not filled him with hope at all, this opinion from Bunnie who had been present when Alastor Moody had grilled her prospective teacher on the material they should be teaching and stalked away on the warpath before enrolling her homeschooling which entailed a heady mix of memory potions such as Wit-Sharpening Potion before each lesson and Dragon Claw powder instead of salt at mealtimes. The new diet boosting Bunnies intellect for the entire time she had been studying and allowing her to breeze through the material and in some cases skip ahead.  
The doorbell rang loudly jolting Maurice out of his thoughts "Miles! I think that's the group, get down here!" a muffled "K" issued from the second floor.  
Opening the front door Maurice smiled as he spotted the group trying to be subtle, Susan was wearing a black robe and witches had pulled down to hide her face from any curious Hogsmeade goers, Bunnie was rubbing her skin where flesh met prosthetic and shifting on the spot in an effort to keep warm even under the cloak whereas Neville was just contentedly examining the falling snowflakes wrapped up warmly.  
"Thanks for doing this guy's" spoke Maurice and waved them in.  
"It's no trouble." Spoke Neville hanging up his jacket on the rack.  
"Nice house" Spoke Susan distractedly wrestling with her bulky witches hat.  
"So what ya looking fir first?" drawled Bunnie.  
Maurice clapped once to get everyone's attention "Food, plates, cutlery then soaps, towels, and things... basically, we're just going to shop until the house looks like a house. Have a look round tell me if we're missing anything."

Several hours of intense shopping and ruffled shopkeepers later, because Bunnie was the bargain shark, Maurice, Miles, Susan, Bunnie and Neville lay sprawled in various places in the living room thick curtains drawn and the fireplace roaring away merrily. A large oaken table veritable creaked loaded as it was with decimated plates of food "That was fun" yawned Miles as he swished a marshmallow in and out of the fire. "I'm amazed we got that cabinet up the stairs, even with magic" mumbled Neville around a crouton. "I don't think we missed anything?" spoke Susan uncertainly from her place on the sofa leaning against Maurice who was happily dosing away almost asleep. "We did tell the teachers where we were right?" Spoke Neville around a marshmallow.  
Maurice nodded "Yep, Sent a note. Just Floo 'Hogwarts, Receiving Room' and you're there, I'm working on connecting the Floo in The Knothole to here so we don't have to bother the teachers, I'll tell you when it's done" What Maurice implied and what he meant were two very different things such as not bothering the teachers which actually equated to leaving the school whenever they wanted, not that Maurice ever took adult considerations into mind having grown up in a very offhand home with no knowledge of what a decent responsible adult was meant to behave like.  
Finishing a marshmallow Neville looked thoughtful "So… what next?"  
Maurice rolled his shoulders and explained his plan "Well Miles is going to school next opening term in South Kensington"  
"Why so far?" asked Susan curiously as to why he was picking somewhere in London as opposed to somewhere closer.  
Maurice smirked "Not that far for me, I'll be taking him each morning, besides with Wit-Sharpening potions he can learn really fast and advance easily enough"  
"Why aren't we using Wit-Sharpening potions? You know, for everything?" asked Neville idly in a moment of genius that his friends would marvel over in the coming years.  
Everyone froze and turned to Susan who looked thoughtful as she recalled everything she'd read about the potion "There's nothing saying we can't?"  
"The potion isn't addictive and is relatively easy to make, it's only got three ingredients and nine steps so even I remembered it." Maurice admitted sounding thoughtful.  
"Ma godfather modified it ta hae six" admitted Bunnie "Mare ingredients but naw awfa ginger taste"  
Reaching a decision Maurice clapped once to get everyone's attention "I'll put in an order tomorrow for the ingredients and some enchanted cauldrons, That way it can be all automated to brew itself in the basement when we're in school and we can load up daily"  
"Me too?" asked Miles, subtly side eying Maurice even as he gingerly poked a roasted marshmallow.  
"There's nothing that say's he can't" spoke Susan mentally going over everything she'd read about the potion and its prescribed usage "I am however going to ask that we take the weekends off to give our minds a rest."  
"This terms going to be a breeze" Maurice singsonged lying back into the cushion with his eyes closed smiles and grins on more than one face.

University of California, Berkeley, United States of America  
As the crate of complex heavy machinery was loaded into the back of the van Lee Jordan felt his misgivings fade away, David Boorman fifth year Hufflepuff, however, was as good as his word. "We've got it!"  
"You weren't seen were you?" asked Lee evenly "As if" scoffed David clambering into the back of the van.  
"Take a chill pill, Man. If Wolfy says he wasn't seen, then he wasn't seen" This comment from Felix Brunt a 5th year Slytherin who was looking rather green having demonstrated countless times that travel by vehicle vehemently disagreed with his constitution. The driver of the vehicle a fellow student in the same Hogwarts house as his best friend Felix, Mervyn Wynch merely grunted in agreement. The glamour on him maintaining the illusion of someone much older a necessity in this job, Lee wished fervently that he hadn't been forced to resort to this measure, stealing was bad enough but hiring these wannabe hooligans to do the job?  
At the very least Lee thought as they drove away, let through campus security by a confounded guard, they hadn't left any trace of their actions so they were competent enough. A second after that though a large explosion ripped through one of the buildings of the university campus they'd just left, all eyes in the van immediately zeroed in on the twitchy Felix who stated in a giggly manner with eyes shining in mad delight "You promised Booms so I made Booms, so not apologizing"  
"Only if we were discovered and only as a last resort you complete birdbrain!" Hissed Lee at the somewhat demented demolitionist.  
David sighed wearily well used to Felix's antic's "Don't bother, Felix hasn't been right since he mistook one of Mervyn's concoctions for pumpkin juice, Part of the reason we're leaving after OWL's anyway"  
"What the other reason?" asked Lee despite himself as a fire engine roared past the van at the intersection alarms screaming. David grinned as the emergency services responded to the explosion in record time emergency lights dazzling in the night "Hogwarts has gotten a bit too dull for us I'm afraid, there's a whole wide world out there for the taking so it's time for us to fly the coop"

The Burrow, Ottery St Catchpole, Devon, England  
Finally back at home in England Ron grinned and spun in place showing off the deer hide jacket and boots in front of the mirror. Both were enchanted by the tanner to allow themselves to seamlessly enlarge as Ron aged by pulling the leftover pelt packaged in an extended pouch sewn into the jacket and shoes, Molly had badgered the tanner for that trick but he'd only grinned and said it was a trade secret.  
Another surprise was to be had when Charlie had approached Ron with a large rectangular box before he'd returned home "The lads felt you deserved this for a magnificent first hunt and I agreed"  
Opening the box revealed a beautiful gleaming recurve bow made of the antlers of the stag fashioned to resemble a wide arching W, carved and treated to have a faint golden sheen and a deer hide quiver and strap.  
"Oh wow that's wicked cool" Breathed Ron, Charlie grinned and passed Ron a small book. "The lads at work also got you a book on how to care for the bow and make your own arrows. When you become better at magic there's even a spell in the back for conjuring temporary arrows" Charlie removed the quiver from the case and latched it onto Ron's jacket where a matching strap secured the quiver in place.  
"You can move the quiver about for ease of access and strap the bow to it using this strap on the quiver. Also, the bow is enchanted with anti-moisture charms so you can even swim with this and it'll be fine"  
Surprisingly Ron was going to be allowed to take the bow to Hogwarts conditional on him showing the same prudence he showed his wand, Charlie had even sent a letter ahead to the headmistress who had sent a form for their mother to sign allowing Ron into the forest to hunt as it had been cleared of danger with the spider purge. However, any carcasses had to be certified as clear of chemicals by Professor Kettleburn before they found their way onto the dinner plate and Ron could earn himself some pocket money for any potion ingredients he picked up.  
In the aftermath of the Spider Rebellion in the Forbidden Forest, it had been discovered that the centaur population had gone missing, the same thing had occurred with the unicorns and various other forest denizens. Never one to miss an opportunity the Hogwarts Board of Governors had ordered wards placed to stop re-entry by dangerous creatures, leaving the forest for the first time ever safe for students. Brought back to the present Ron heard his mother speak from the doorway. "…and remember Ronald you can wear your new outfit as long as you wear school robes over it in class and at meals" Ron nodded along at his mother's lecture barely paying attention, He'd been so excited the night before that he'd packed up for Hogwarts early to his mother's pride. He finally had something that he could excel at and while Magical Ingredient Hunter Extraordinaire didn't sound like much it was something Ron deeply enjoyed especially after the first Hogwarts term he'd had which had included such experiences such as dispelling jinxes and curses on everything in his side of the Gryffindor dorms and being extra vigilant for whatever piece of nastiness the snakes in lions robes calling themselves Gryffindors thought up next. At least being in the forest meant that Ron could test his spellcasting in peace, even the more dubious hexes and jinxes he'd picked up and to be truthful he'd grown used to the solitude.

Hogwarts Front Lawn, One minute before Midnight, December 31st, 1991  
"I must admit that this was a marvelous idea" spoke Flitwick enthusiastically to Professor Lucretia as the fireworks exploded above signaling the New Year.  
Lucretia sat primly at the repurposed house table that had been relocated to the outside lawn with some benches, the teachers and remaining students were seated or walking about as the fireworks went off noisily above. The table was laden with all types of food and some very weak cider and butterbeer.  
"You should thank the students, I believe Weasley was the one to suggest this idea to my pyrotechnically inclined husband." Informed Lucretia from her seat sipping some hot cider.  
"Happy new year" Toasted McGonagall to the teachers who similarly raised their glasses echoing a chorus of "Cheers!" apart from Ignatius who said "Kanpai!" just to be contrary, earning a dirty look from his wife.  
At the lakefront, Maurice and his friends were making some toasts of their own each more outlandish than the first.  
"To snowball fights and improperly built igloos!" "To chocolate frog cards!" "To passing through exams with much wit!" "To hypersonic post owls!" "To chilidogs!" all the students were breathless with laughter with even the stoic Blaise snickering.

Meanwhile somewhere in England  
Under various repellent charms, the cloaked stranger drew no attention from the local populace of the country village as he walked almost serenely through the howling blizzard unseen by all, soon the figure reached the village outskirts and arrived at a broken down hovel neatly hidden from view by high brambles, wicked tree trunks and wild unkempt hedges. Pushing aside the underbrush to get closer the figure stalked his way towards the hovel, not even moonlight was visible. On closer examination, the house which was more of a shack was deserted and clearly had been in such a state for a great number of years, the gate itself was in pitiable repair covered in moss and lichen. The entire area gave off an aura of decay this was especially exemplified by the sight of the large snake skeleton crudely nailed to the front door. The stranger's eyes glowed red from under his cowl, the sign of a form of enhanced mage sight that enabled him to see any magic in the area. Finding none of note the figure pointed his wand at the door and abruptly wrenched it out off its hinges a silencing charm stopping any noise from ensuring. Eyes flaring crimson the figure strode into the house without fear or hesitation and after a brief look around the interior strode over to the table, levitating it out of the way to get at the floorboards underneath them. Wrenching up the floorboards wordlessly with a wand wave the figures gaze flickered to and fro tracking invisible flares of light only visible to him, placing a box lined with lead next to his feet the figure drew an unusual item for a wizard to possess from an extended pouch, a mundane litter picker with neon yellow bands made of reinforced steel clearly appropriated from some non-magical garbage collector for just this purpose. Carefully the figure used the non-magical contraption to pick up the small ring box from the floor the flaring curse within not reacting to the wizard's efforts. Placing the ring box in the larger lead-lined box, the figure tapped the box closed abruptly cutting off the invisible flames. The wizard levitated the box out of the building careful for any other enchantments. Making it out to the front gate and walking a further distance from the shack the figure then maneuvered the box into the extended pouch at which point the shack behind him registered the intrusion and exploded inwards as if at the center of a black hole. Having witnessed the traps finally activate and go up in such a spectacular manner the figure made some mental notes on the style as he waited for the implosion to abate which it did five minutes later. With a flick of the strangers wand the trees surrounding the hovel began to smoke, the figure disappeared noiselessly on the spot as the trees surrounding the hovel from around and above burst into flames.


	26. January 1992

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At this point, chapters are arranged by covering a month per chapter, making short concise summaries difficult.  
> Students return to school, money is made, worldbuilding, Black Ops antics, some worldbuilding, international antics, and even more worldbuilding,

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

January 6th, 1992, Hogwarts  
Maurice stretched in place, his spine making a tension releasing crackling sound as he waited at the train station for the other students to return, with him stood Fred Weasley methodically flicking through a long coil of parchment as he chattered on about each item on his bounty list of missing items he and Blaise had been hired to find. Maurice hadn't been paying attention to what Fred and Blaise had been up to over the holidays, dimly he'd registered the two detectives bustling in and out of The Knothole with strangely wrapped parcels of found items and in some cases a few cages full of missing pets. "I'm thinking of putting an advertisement in the Daily Prophet," Fred said with a grin as he browsed the list "I'm pretty sure that some of the graduates have lost things they would pay us oodles of cash to find, even nostalgia has its price"  
Maurice looked down the tracks at the approaching train "About time finally!"  
"Who are you waiting for anyway?" asked Fred as he counted his way through the list again.  
Maurice tapped a foot impatiently as the train pulled in slowly "Sophie, We forgot to get her a present at Christmas so we all chipped in to get her something nice, remember?" Maurice neglected to say that the group had made sure to get her something suitably heavy that could be explained as the reason she hadn't received it at Christmas time. There had been some debate about showing her The Knothole though that idea had been shot down as they didn't feel that they knew her well enough yet. "Hey! Sophie!" Maurice signaled with a yell and a wave spotting her in one window, Sophie looked surprised to see him.  
Opening the carriage door once the train came to a complete stop and the student rush had lessened Maurice helped Sophie haul her large trunk onto the platform and deposited it with the rest of the luggage train. Sophie adjusted her windswept hair as she walked alongside him to the school a bit flustered "Thank you"  
Maurice grinned in an approximation of a roguish grin "I'm a gentleman. So how was your holiday?"  
Sophie nearly vibrated in place with excitement "I got an early apprenticeship with the Sky Patrol Task Force!"  
"You're a first-year student how did you manage that?" asked Maurice as they made their way on foot to the school, despite having already heard of Sophie's promotion from Susan who heard it from her Aunt though Maurice had still thought that the S.P.T.F only enrolled people who had O.W.L's and N.E.W.T's to their name.  
Sophie explained rapidly "It's part of their Junior Division project, Someone pointed out that Hogwarts doesn't teach a dedicated flying course just an introduction, and had limited openings for students on the Quidditch teams so some people never get the chance to nurture their flying talent. It's not just flying through all members of the Junior Division can learn other things which transfer into other parts of the new wizarding army"  
Curiosity piqued Maurice eyed Sophie "Like what?  
Sophie almost spoke then stopped herself with an apologetic look "Sorry Maurice, The courses are classified to non-members"  
Maurice shrugged "It's cool, what can you tell me then?"  
Sophie's grin returned but before she could speak a voice called out to the duo "Maurice, You found Sophie-"  
"Princess Susan, I hope you had a nice holiday" squeaked Sophie clearly out of her depth regarding meeting royalty though her reaction wasn't out of place.  
Unlike the rest of the students Susan had undergone a uniform change to fit her rank and while she still wore the Ravenclaw uniform it had been modified, in place of her school house colors were the colors of the new royal house with gold, dark copper and dark crimson, the back of her robe had her houses new heraldry embroidered on the back that of a gold and copper acorn on a dark crimson field contained in a gold ring. As far as Maurice could explain it after hearing Hopkirk wax near lyrically about hidden meanings, the acorn represented the beginning whilst the dark crimson indicated conflict and old blood and the ring represented marriage and containment of the bloodshed or something like that. In addition to the robes Susan also wore a small golden circlet with stylized gold oak leaves with a ruby at the forefront on her head barely visible with her red hair, Regardless of how Susan was dressed though the gawking was getting embarrassing, thankfully she only had to wear the official royal uniform for events.  
"Did you tell Sophie about the…" Susan hinted Maurice nodded with a look of realization and turned to Sophie.  
"Susan and I got you a present but it only arrived after Solstice and was too heavy to send by owl so it'll be in your dorm room"  
"Oh! You really didn't have to" squeaked Sophie blushing red unable to see past the royalty, defusing the awkward Maurice turned to Susan "Anyway Sophie was telling me about her holiday, She got an apprenticeship at Sky Patrol" That was all it took for the chatter to continue awkwardness fading fast as the trio made their way to the Great Hall.

Great Hall  
Hogwarts was rapidly filling up again Maurice noticed, looking at the nearly full house tables, it was odd after having more or less free reign of the empty castle over the holidays, still, the likelihood of having the same thing happen next year was not high so at least he'd made the most of it and thoroughly mapped the school, figuring out the locations of the common rooms and various abandoned classrooms. He dragged his attention to the headmistress as she finally drew her welcome back to school speech to a close "-on that note, Due to unstable masonry the third-floor corridor is now out of bounds until it is repaired, this is for your own safety. The reconstruction should be finished sometime next year." And Maurice reminded himself yet again that he needed to find out what his friends did to cause that much damage to the third floor because he kept forgetting to ask. Redirecting his gaze to Susan who took the time to talk with the various students who approached her during the feast, Maurice took the time to marvel at the change in her.  
This was the first time that Susan had truly been amongst the regular population since becoming a crown princess and so far Maurice thought that she was doing a great job, there were times that she seemed to get a bit overwhelmed by the crowd but a very weak Confundus charm fired into the herd to make them temporarily forget their questions on Maurice's part aided in reducing the crowding to a more manageable level.  
By the time the people remembered the question they wanted to ask they would return in smaller groups or individually making them much more manageable, mentally Maurice thanked Mafalda again for teaching him the charm, the purposely weakened version had no telltale pink light and was apparently a favorite of wizarding bodyguards everywhere.  
The tutor was surprisingly liberal with sharing her spell repertoire as well as offering tips and advice where it was needed, added to that the debates on history she and Susan had were something to be seen, educational too.

Dance hall, Hogwarts Dungeons  
"It was good of Nick to let us rent out the Deathday Party Hall" spoke Fred behind the curtain next to the raised podium, Blaise eyed the slowly assembling crowd from behind the curtains "That's a lot of people down there, how careless of them"  
Fred scoffed "You mean how profitable and I don't think careless really encompasses the abject stupidity of some of them! How do you even lose some of these things?"  
Both Fred and Blaise eyed the line of cages full of lost pets containing everything from lost cats to silent Jobberknoll to a single lone Porlock who delighted in casually flipping off anyone who looked at it, handily proving that the Hogwarts pets list really was just a suggestion.  
"So how exactly are we paying Nick anyway?" spoke Blaise as far as he knew ghosts had no need for currency, though that did raise the question of how Professor Binns was being paid and if so where the money was going...  
Fred jerked his head to the unlabelled blue box on the side table that his brother Percy had brought in from home, though he'd had to fib a bit about doing it purely as altruism and house loyalty rather than as a promised payment "My mum baked a big cake with layered ghost pepper icing, strong tasting spices and a few taste amplifying potions. The ghosts are going to have it on display at their death day parties here for pretty much the rest of ever."  
Blaise shuddered at the thought of being desperate enough to walk through rotting food just to taste anything "If I die and become a ghost please exorcise me"  
Fred's immediate and highly predictable response "Only if you promise the same"  
"Deal" Spoke Blaise distractedly peering through the curtains again "I think its time"  
Fred eyed the audience sitting calmly in the seating "I think you're right, time to begin then" without further ado Fred sauntered up to the podium facing the audience with a grin that wouldn't be out of place on a crocodile "Welcome students! Like last year we'll be calling out your assigned Lot number, when we do so please have your cash in hand so we can return your lost items and pets in a calm and orderly manner, First on the agenda Lot 47, a pair of self-ironing dress robes and two charmingly charmed chameleon skin gloves!"

Slytherin first years female dormitory  
The promised late Christmas present when it came was half the size of her school trunk and had a carry handle visible even through the mishmash of multicolored wrapping paper.  
Lavender did not even bother to hide her curiosity lying on her bed with her hands propping up her chin and her bare feet idly waving in the air with an air of expectance, she knew better than to touch a fellow students things, especially as the prefects at the start of the year had handed out a list of privacy and security charms on the first day at Hogwarts and advised them to learn more.  
Ignoring Lavender's blatant curious staring Sophie silently read the card attached to the wrapping a simple note 'Make sure room is cleared around the suitcase by a meter in each direction, then press the black button and stand back.' Unwrapping the multicolored paper carefully so as not to tear it revealed a smooth cherry wood case with an ebony wood handle. Following the instructions and moving the case into the side of the room aware of Lavender's curious gaze Sophie pressed the black button on the handle and watched as the wooden case unraveled. Assembling itself like a complicated Chinese puzzle the case eventually reassembled into its new configuration, a tall dresser with a mirror which had drawers beneath the mirror and a wardrobe the full height of the mirror. Stuck on the mirror with spellotape was a magical picture of Susan, Maurice, Neville, Parvati, Fred and Blaise smiling and laughing around the case in the library and another note taped to the drawer.  
Lavender whistled at the sight of the large-high-quality portable dresser "Well, I know what I want for my birthday"  
Sophie smiled softly and the writing scrawled over the photo.

Dear Sophie  
We figured that someone keen on joining the Sky Patrol is going to be up in the air often, so here's a way to stop the day's weather wrecking your special day.  
Everyone gets a friend a present on their first day on a new job, yours came earlier than most.  
Ps. From Susan, I heard about the youngest person to join the new Ministry through my mother, I hope this helps.  
Pss. From Bunnie, Open everything.  
Merry Christmas.

London, South Kensington Primary School, 3:30 pm  
Miles waited as the other children filed out the school gates wondering what Maurice would say about his first day at school, it had been memorable it had to be said. Miles had a hard time fitting in with the other children through the problem had become clear to the teacher and Miles that the average reading level of the other children was that of picture books while Miles was reading long novels. Truthfully Miles liked reading, a habit in part inspired by Maurice's ongoing campaign to fill all the bookshelves in the house with second-hand books on near every subject under the sun for his benefit. Miles made it a point to emulate his big brother whose shelves were surprisingly littered with romantic war novels, which when asked about had resulted in a fierce blush and a mutter about teaching himself to read with them as a child and nostalgia.  
With a boom, Miles was jolted out of his thoughts before they could go further as Maurice materialized with a flicker of blue wind, his newly enchanted medallion necklace diverting all attention aimed at him for the act. "Ready to go home bro?"  
A voice interrupted before Miles could say anything "Actually I would like to talk to you about your brother, you are young Miles guardian are you not?"  
The following talk with Miles teacher and the headmaster was an enlightening one and arrangements were made for Miles to test up until he found his level. The teachers had expressed concern that Miles should stay with his age mates which was curtailed by Maurice calmly asking a bashful looking Miles what he thought of that idea. "They're kind of… not very smart?" a vast understatement "and I don't want to have to shove crayons in my ears to fit in" turning back to the teachers with lips twitching at Miles awkward admission it was immediately agreed that Miles would advance to his corresponding mental age level.  
On the way home, a short run to the new London international floo, hub Maurice couldn't help but remark "Advanced for your age? Just wait till we have the Auto-Brewery setup."  
"I'm going to blow them out of the water" Miles grinned and yawned the evening wind tousling his hair.  
"I don't doubt you will" spoke Maurice expression softening at Miles yawn. "Tired?" Miles just nodded sleepily.  
Maurice led him to their private Floo hub and with a pinch of Floo powder brothers vanished into the green fire, reappearing moments later in Scotland in their Floo room.  
"A bath first, then dinner at six then bed at eight, okay?" Spoke Maurice ruffling Miles hair as he hung up their coats hanging up the medallion next to the colorful wizard hat that Neville had gotten him as a joke and locking the floo grate for the night.  
"Okay"  
Inwardly Maurice was happy that Miles wasn't the nightmare child Dudley was with temper tantrums, demands for candy and no set bedtime.  
After a very sudsy water fight masquerading as an attempt to get clean during which the lives of many yellow rubber duckies met grisly ends amidst much diabolical laughter, Miles sat at the kitchen island munching on some chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy idly eying the green peas with thinly concealed disgust.  
"Are you going to eat Big Brother?" asked Miles seeing Maurice only prepare a plate for Miles and box up the leftovers.  
Maurice shook his head in the negative muffling a yawn "I'm stuffed from the Hogwarts Feast, I'll eat dinner here tomorrow but some feasts are mandatory"  
Miles eyes lit up "All the students came back today"  
Maurice nodded "That's right" putting the recipe book he'd been leafing through away, Maurice considered the first home-cooked meal he'd ever made for someone who mattered a success.  
Miles fidgeted a bit in place before asking "Can I come to school with you?"  
Maurice was not going to lie but at least decided to provide a logical reason for why he couldn't "Only on the weekend's Miles, Hogwarts can be dangerous for those without magic, sometimes the stairs work, sometimes they don't and magical pranks you can't dispel are not nice." Maurice could already see Mile's mood take a downturn.  
"Oh" Miles spoke dejectedly.  
Cleaning the cooking implements with a wand wave Maurice returned them to their places in the cupboards before joining Miles side of the kitchen counter an idea on how to distract him already planned out days before.  
"Anyway I thought you wanted to build a treehouse?" teased Maurice causing Miles to perk back up "We're really going to do it?"  
Maurice nodded as he chivvied Miles up the stairs to his bedroom "The forest is not forbidden anymore, I figured we could fly around and find a good spot for one on the weekend."  
"Can Aunt Susan, Bunnie, Neville, Mr. Ninja Detective and Fred help too?" exclaimed Miles excitedly.  
"I'll ask them" Maurice reassured with a smile "We could even make a competition out of it"  
"But ours will be the best, right?"  
Maurice grinned "I don't doubt it. Now finish your dinner."  
"Okay!" Miles dug into his food.  
Miles didn't last till eight falling asleep on the couch the days excitement catching up with him, Carrying him under the effect of a featherlight charm Maurice took Miles to his bed and tucked him in under the sheets, turning out the lights Maurice went to his own bedroom, settling down to read one of the better wizarding history novels in preparation for Susan's quizzing tomorrow.

January 7th, Department of Magical Law Enforcement, W.A.N.D Headquarters  
Sergeant Rufus Scrimgeour met General Emmeline Vance's gaze evenly as he bluntly stated his thoughts on this latest assignment aloud "General, this sounds like a prank to me"  
General Vance tapped the folder "Sergeant Scrimgeour I expect much the same, however, it is a good test scenario, depending on how your subordinates act they could earn promotions now they've certainly demonstrated a level of professionalism expected of the new system, they certainly have the skill"  
The reforms had made it exponentially harder to join the ministry or indeed any facet of magical government in Britain, the competency expectations and stringent testing had skimmed the previous ministries workers by more than half.  
Rufus could not hide his scowl and General Vance sighed "I know that many are unhappy with the restructuring of the Auror core-"  
"Regardless of my personal feelings, I can see the benefits already, It's just-"  
Vance interrupted him "You were in line for a promotion, The Auror Corps was a broken system Sergeant too easily infiltrated for those with money or influences and with no real checks and balances to stop corruption, the same could be said for every ministry department under the old administration"

Delving into the secrecy of the new Ministry, when the Auror Core was restructured, or rather more accurately put, wholesale replaced, the changes to the system allowed for laxer yet far harder hiring schemata conditional on the job training to bridge the skill gap. Military ranks had been adopted straight from Mundane Britain. With these new hiring practices completely lacking any hints of blood status preference in the hiring step many mundane-born became enlisted and with them they brought their own ideas.  
Mainly magical military equipment or magical equivalents, so it was not uncommon nowadays to see the new combat active ranks of the British magical military adorned in close-fitting uniform with various enchanted accessories such as communication rings that functioned like radios, optional cloaks with various enchantments from invisibility to fire resistance, enchanted riot shields and other classified projects. And this was only the scratching the surface of the changes in the Auror offices, others were far more startling.

Scrimgeour, however, knew that if he hadn't been injured in the Diagon Alley attack and forced on medical leave before the restructuring happened then he might have been a far, far higher rank, however galling the thought was though he knew it wasn't personal, and the changes had enormously benefited the new core, firing the dead weight. He himself had had the time to write a book when in recovery and laughed upon learning from owl notes from co-workers that another inept coattail rider had been given the boot. Still, if he had to work himself up the ranks again through sheer bull-headed competence at least he'd be in good company this time, less paperwork was always a plus too.  
"I accept the mission, General Vance"  
Vance nodded "May I have a list of those you wish to test?" She placed the large dossier in front of Rufus who began examining the profiles within proceeding to pick out a four in particular that stood out.  
Waving the selected files and arranging them so all the photos and names were visible to Vance, Scrimgeour spoke "These two are ready as of now General, the other two are maybes, Honch Williamson and Vincent Proudfoot definitely, Gawain Robards and John Dawlish are possible but I'd want to give them a bit more cross-species training to get rid of any lingering creature prejudices"  
Vance nodded and Rufus grinned roguishly. "Who knows? If those four are as good as I think they are we might have an operations team in the future"  
Vance's expression which had until now been placid as she nodded along to his reasoning went flat which put it at odds with her now saccharine tone "No doubt you will name them something ridiculous again"  
Rufus's nostrils blared like a charging bull at the slight, Paladin Team Sigma-Alpha 1 was a perfectly reasonable name for a military unit and General Vance was an unimaginative snob for dismissing it, Just for that Rufus was going to name this squad Paladin Team Sigma-Alpha 2 out of spite.

Wiltshire, England 6:30 am  
The people of Warminster had been living in fear since early January when the first of a spate of disappearances began, at first it had been assumed to be runaways but then it had escalated from the occasional one or two people to whole families, the fear reached fever pitch when a police team of investigators went to examine the cottage of the latest disappearance and abruptly lost contact one by one until the entire team went radio silent. Needless to say, the ground control team were scared spitless. The army had mobilized and soldiers could be seen combing the city, an action touted as excessive until they too one by one also started disappearing. The unknown, presumably black Op unit had then arrived and been given absolute authority, the appearance of a shady shadow organization for once actually reassuring the local populace.  
"So this is where the anonymous tip said" John Dawlish spoke quietly into his com ring laying flat on the lip of the hill.  
Proudfoot scoffed "It's probably some idiot pulling a prank, I mean a cellar full of corpses, seriously Sarge?"  
The 'Sarge' as his unit had nicknamed him, Rufus Scrimgeour resisted the urge to roll his eyes "Prank or no it is our job to investigate all tips and-" The sergeant trailed off suddenly alert.  
"And what?" Prompted Robards.  
Sarge ignored Robards in favor of casting a few diagnostic spells around "There's a ward line here, a really old one"  
"One of the old families doing some baiting maybe" theorized William mood darkening at the implications as he continued casting his own diagnostics.  
"But the old families wouldn't let their wards get into this state and if they were dead the ward would be down" rebutted Sergeant, eyes narrowed.  
Ever the cynic Dawlish who had taken to the improvised mundane studies like a duck to water drawled "Or exploded like a bomb or an unexploded one, What do you want to do Sarge?"  
"Scan for the ward's boundaries then prepare to crack them"  
"Is that a good idea Sarge? If it's one of the old families…" Williamson trailed off uncomfortably.  
"We have the legal right" and the old families had no power anyway the most that would happen if he was wrong, would be a slap on the wrist.  
"We have the boundaries metered out we may need to call in some reinforcement though to meet the corners, the borders look vertexed."  
The Sarge swore viciously causing his team to muffle grins even though the news was pretty bad "They block warded?!"

Warding is a dangerous art, the fact that the warfare loving goblins immediately chose ward breaking and tomb raiding as a pastime when banned from waging all-out war should tell you exactly how dangerous it was.  
There are many ways to ward a tomb, building or house in general, Block-Warding is when, instead of encasing a place in a spherical bubble a technique known as Bubble-Warding, instead a measurement of distance is chosen from a surface on the exterior house and using that surface as an anchor, projects a block of ward some distance away.  
As a result of Block-Warding to those looking through magical filters the house appears to be encased in large blocks of glass, this glass can appear colored if additional enchantments are woven in.  
Block-Warding can also peacefully coexist with Bubble-Warding as long as the bubble completely encompasses the Block-Ward perimeter.  
When correctly set up Block-Wardings are horrendously difficult to break, designed to give the inhabitant of a dwelling time to escape, they are designed purely for stalling an attacker and giving the inhabitant time to prepare a counteroffensive from a reinforced position, the spell once had use in stopping projectiles from catapults. The kinetic energy from these ballista attacks was then stored as reserve power reinforcing the entire setup.  
On the other hand, Bubble-Warding is to create a bubble around a charged wardstone whilst the size of the bubble depending wholly on the stored power of the wardstone.  
The use of this combination with Block-Warding is restricted in modern times for two reasons such as the fact that the extension can sometimes result in an accidental theft of neighboring land, simply because land deeds are never (or at least not usually) an exact circle as well as the fact that some bright spark had many years ago figured out how to tie the kinetic energy-draining effect of the Block-Warding and feed it into the Bubbles wardstone making their combined nature fiendishly difficult to crack.

However all of this knowledge was rendered irrelevant at the instance when Dawlish went down with a panicked scream as he was silently attacked by the lurking Lethifold, his screams becoming more muffled as the creatures drape-like body constricted violently, luckily his teammates were not idle springing into action, saving him from the indignity of an empty-casket funeral.

January 9th, The Ministry Department of Mysteries  
The Daily Prophet's headline blared the news as obnoxiously as they always had 'Lethifold in Warminster!'  
The picture on the front page showed a group of Ministry soldiers grinning around a glass display case where a massive creature that could be mistaken for a large cloak or bedsheet pawed ineffectively at the glass. And didn't that ring a bell? Unspeakable Owl thought furiously as he raked through the piles of magical cargo import records, searching for something that could have transported a Lethifold that large and was connected to Lucius Malfoy or one of his associates. Or, Owl paused in his movement, his enemies… He needed to see the condition of Malfoy Manor, to see just what the heck was going on.  
"Are you sure you don't have an alternative reason for this rather than professional interest?" spoke the Head Unspeakable shrewdly.  
"I'm sure I have no idea of what yours speaking of, sir" spoke Owl stiffly.  
"Hm, it's not every day a centuries-old blood feud ends with the extinction of another house"  
"I was in Romania" Owl pointed out.  
"Of course I don't suspect you" spoke the Head Unspeakable "I know better, should I call it sympathy for the devil?"  
Unspeakable Owl teetered on the edge of indecision before nodding grudgingly.  
The Head Unspeakable nodded decision made "Then you can go, you can have a week max and any resources to investigate if you wish then I want you back on the underground surveillance team, Dismissed"  
Owl paused at the door before he exited "Thank you, sir"  
Unspeakable's Beaver and Bulldog were more than happy to escape their desk jobs for a bit of investigation though bulldog was making it obvious that the prospect of being allowed to rake around Malfoy Manor without the restrictions of the Aurors had him chomping at the bit in excitement.  
"You were an old guard Auror weren't you, Poached by the Unspeakable's the first chance they got?" Seeing no reason to hide this fact Unspeakable Bulldog nodded "That explains the eagerness" Owl mused. The pureblood laws had made carrying out a decent investigation on their ilk that would hold up in court was nearly impossible, being allowed unrestricted access now was, to the average straight-laced ministry law enforcer, a bit of a dream come true. Beaver had no such eagerness the reason he had agreed to come on a fieldwork mission was that he just really hated doing paperwork or all deskwork in general.

Wiltshire, England  
The convoy truck, a large black lumbering beast of a vehicle enchanted to be sturdier than a challenger tank trundled its way up the path Paladin Team Sigma-Alpha 2 had cleared.  
Despite having portkeyed the entire truck into a deserted field a mere mile away from the site because of the combination of portkey and country roads, Unspeakable Beaver was quite sure that Unspeakable Bulldog was the most disagreeable passenger and occasional backseat driver he had ever met in his entire life. Without even knowing the unspoken rules of being a passenger in a vehicle Bulldog managed to break almost every single one of them on the short trip. Fiddling with the dashboard and compartments from the back, not putting the seatbelt on, putting his feet up, noisily eating something with a crinkly paper, begging a anti-nausea potion off Owl and smudging the walls with his grimy hands in the process and when that didn't work moving to the front seat to alleviate the carsickness and finally just puking on the actual driver's lap when it became clear that seating didn't make the slight bit of difference. If Bulldog even though of lighting up a cigarette…  
Unspeakable Beaver contemplated driving into a pothole on purpose just to see Bulldog suffer for the insult but restrained himself, barely. One day, mused Beaver mutinously Bulldog was going to need a getaway driver from someone he'd have gravely annoyed and on that day Beaver would happily knock that man's teeth in before being that getaway driver.

10th January, Hogwarts, Seventh Floor  
Lee carefully maneuvered the invisible crate along the corridor, he himself invisible and silenced to avoid detection, soon enough he was back in the wardstone room. Canceling the charms on himself Lee opened the crate and got to work assembling the carefully sourced components.  
Out in the corridor, the air shimmered and a figure faded into view gazing at the patch of wall Lee had just vanished through. Clad in a black bodysuit and concealing headwear the figure clearly female examined the wall and grinned "I think I've done it! I've found Hogwarts Secret Treasure Room!" The figure then frowned "If only that knucklehead hadn't found it first! He always interferes when I find something nice!" The figure began carefully casting diagnostic charms at the wall as well as setting up several listening charms, she'd get into that room even if it took her years.

11th January, Above the Forbidden Forest  
"Have you found any place yet, Sue?" Yelled Maurice over the distance holding Miles and carefully steering the broomstick at the same time against the headwind.  
With Susan, Maurice and Miles were Neville, Bunnie and surprisingly Madam Hopkirk each on their own brooms the discord detective duo having begged off the camping trip in favor of doing more detective work. Madam Hopkirk had elected herself as the supervisor of this for lack of better words camping trip into the Forbidden Forest, in reality, Mafalda saw camping as a fun activity and had decided to live vicariously through her students. The treehouse competition, a cute bonding moment between siblings on Maurice and Miles part, would also let her gauge the group's dynamics better.  
Susan was enjoying herself flying over the forest occasionally accelerating and decelerating to look for any good spots to build on, it was easy to tell she enjoyed the freedom of flight away from the observing eyes of the school students.  
Bunnie was up for any outdoors activity thanks to her godfather who lived by survival guides and doomsday preparation books and thought them adequate bedtime stories for his young goddaughter.  
Neville had come solely because he had never gone camping before in his life and had been bullied into it by Bunnie and when that hadn't worked, Miles watery pleading gaze had caused him to fold like a deck of soggy cards.  
Consequently it was Neville who spotted something first and his lack of confidence on a broomstick to make him go investigating first such was his eagerness to touch the ground.  
Following Neville on his slow descent into the forest it became clear what he had miraculously seen, nearly impossible to spot from above and impossible to get to on foot was a massive ravine in the forest. The large overhanging tree canopy from the massive trees at cliffs edge functioning as natural camouflage hiding the crevice, at the far end of the ravine was a sparkling waterfall creating a fast running river thought the bottom of the ravine. Light shone through the canopy leaving the wide open base of the ravine well lit, revealing another level of forest floor with verdant green grass, trees and wildflowers.  
All six were silent as they gaze wordlessly at the hidden marvel Maurice broke the silence first "So I'm thinking a small log cabin in that clearing over there…" the rest of the group burst into noise as their own plans came into being.

12th January, Hogwarts, disused classroom, 6th Floor,  
Tap tap tap went the sound of the stone as a thin flake of stone split off, landing on the pillow beneath, Ron Weasley inspected the stone flake and sighed "Too thin for an arrowhead, but I'm getting there" The book that Charlie had gifted him was thorough and well-paced, Ron though himself a bit in love with the index feature, it made it easier to read than many spellbooks. Right now Ron was on the chapter that taught him how to make enchanted arrowheads using obsidian, reasonably he was on the beginner stage by practicing with stone arrowheads as obsidian if knapped wrongly could shatter into razor-sharp fragments and possibly injure someone. Under the supervision of Professor Silvanus Kettleburn Ron had already brought down two marmots and a large buck in the forest all of which had been cleared and found their way to the dinner table at Hogwarts, the pelts had been treated and sent home to his mother who Ron knew wanted to experiment with that sewing trick she'd learned in Romania.  
Obsidian arrowheads also had another purpose he'd heard from one of the people of the reserve that you could catch fish using the right arrowhead and a thin fishing line and that obsidian lasted better in water, Ron had no idea if this was true but he really wanted to try it regardless even if he suspected it was a fish story.  
Still even if it didn't work it was fun and his little sister Ginny had requested some pelts as well apparently of a mind to create her own unique outfit too, opposed to buying second hand which he was perfectly okay with as it meant his parents wouldn't be price gouged for everything next year when shopping for everyone.

16th, January, Unknown Location  
"Albus! Albus! Look at this!"  
Sparks flying beneath his wand tip Albus Dumbledore continued to weave the enchantment into the steel with care "If you haven't noticed Silver? I am a trifle busy"  
Silver, no doubt a code name to hide his real identity, had joined the ICW's forces a few ago and proven himself a valuable asset, It was because of Silver in the first place that Albus was with one of the ICW's taskforce squadrons. None had been more surprised than Albus Dumbledore when the boy had materialized in the ICW's building in a cloud of time sand with a dire warning of the dark future to come. Of course, that dire warning would have been a lot more helpful if the time traveler in question had known what had messed up the future in the first place, instead, Silver had been given leave to join the taskforce to track down another much less benevolent time traveler.  
Albus had handpicked the temporally displaced boy's team with the best experts in their fields naturally this meant that they were mostly Unspeakable's, not his desired team-mates for the boy.  
Despite Silver looking like a ten-year-old, it had been verified by spell and potion that the traveler had been affected by the time sand negatively and de-aged from his previous age of twenty to ten, thankfully not as young as he would be according to the current timeline or he wouldn't have been born yet. His new diminutive size had had an interesting effect on his fully mature magic allowing for higher impact attacks but completely wrecking any attempt to cast spells that required finesse. That was not to say Silver was useless, anyone who could effortlessly levitate a ten-tonne tank and fling it the length of two football fields with that much force was someone to be respected let alone multiple tanks at once with the same distance.  
As a person Albus found Silver a bit uptight not in a arrogant way, but he had a habit of worrying seemingly ceaselessly about the future he's come from. Silver had traveled back in time chasing after another criminal, a time traveller who in the future had escaped captivity in Azkaban for murder most foul as well as holding the information required to undo the disaster which had wrecked the future Earth rendering it a barren wasteland, It was that fugitive that the ICW Taskforce had been assembled to fight, Naturally when your enemy had access to time travel and no respect for the space time continuum it led the pursuers to some very interesting places and timelines.  
The only reason that Albus Dumbledore had even consented to join the taskforce and leave Hogwarts was that while he knew Lord Voldemort's Wraith was still floating about somewhere in Romania he also knew that the dark lord's former dogmas would find little to no support in his homeland, the pureblood movement effectively neutered. Albus smirked to himself at his own minor role in that event, he did not regret giving that all expenses paid month-long vacation tour of America he'd won in the Muggle newspaper to his Muggle studies professor at all, Quirinus Quirrell who had then returned from the vacation with a fire lit under him and his mundane passion renewed ready to inspire similar passions in his students had done more to shake the pureblood rhetoric from his school than anything else he'd tried.  
Albus shook himself to pay attention to what Silver was saying as he sounded very upset as per usual, with an internal sigh and a wand flick Albus tied the enchantment at the halfway stage and broke away to face the ICW's most recent secret agent who was holding a newspaper in his face "This didn't happen before!" Albus had a sinking feeling in his stomach as he knew better than to ignore the time traveller's worries "What didn't happen before?" Silver shoved the paper at Albus who took the British newspaper slash gossip rag out of his face to read it properly, the title itself caught his attention instantly 'Amelia Bones, Queen of Magical Britain?' In it, detailed in much flowery language of how midnight raid's on Wizegamot residences and mass interrogation had brought to light mass corruption at all levels of society to a irrevocable level resulting in Amelia Bones the stalwart protector of the people seizing power unilaterally in magical Britain.  
Of course, Albus noted wryly it didn't say what prompted the raids but he didn't even need to read between the lines to see that 'trusted sources' may as well be synonymous with 'Amelia Bones said so'. Nice to see the press was still bought mused Albus wryly, reading further down the page to see if he missed anything and finding nothing else of interest Albus took a deep breath "Well, we always knew that something was going to change with my absence, this has exceeded the best outcome we could have expected"  
"The best outcome?! Are you serious?!" Silver's hair began to match his mood cycling through shades of reds and white in a nauseating display of metamorph ability.  
Albus raised a brow and spoke in his most practiced I'm-disappointed-in-your-life-choices-my-student tone, the one he'd shamelessly stolen from Yoda in that delightful Star Wars movie Quirinus had broadcast in the staffroom to that one time.  
"Well perhaps if you had paid attention in your history class then we could have nipped this problem in the bud by now?" Silver donned a disheartened look as the Grand Sorcerer spoke. "As it is" Dumbledore continued now sounding reassuring "We can only try to take care of problems as they appear in front of us, now tell me, has the team made any progress in tracking the Augurey?"  
Silver nodded and handed over a old map taken from the archive "We think she went here in Munich around about 1927" It took Albus a moment to place the date and another to figure out why that particular date was important.  
"Is that date significant?" asked Silver upon seeing Albus's expression abruptly freeze.

19th January, Hogsmeade Village, Bluewind House  
Maurice yawned as he and Neville poked and prodded the brewery the duo had set up with minimal help from Bunnie and Susan. Miles was sitting on a tall stool kicking his legs.  
"This took longer than expected" Maurice admitted slinking over to the wall with a tired yawn.  
"What part? The ordering or the getting the cauldron down the stairs part" asked Miles thinking of the solid hour of swearing from Bunnie, Neville and Maurice as they carefully carried the very large heavy steel cauldron down the winding stairs to the basement.  
"Both"  
Neville sat next to Maurice as Susan began setting up the auto-brewery "Be glad we spotted the problem or in a week we'd have keeled over from lead poisoning"  
Susan spoke not taking her eyes off the cauldron "I didn't even know St. Mungo's sold cauldrons made of stainless surgical steel"  
Neville blushed "It's something I overheard"  
Mafalda nodded watching the auto-brewery setup with a eagle eye, having been very impressed with the group's idea to speed up their learning "Pewter is a fine cauldron for hobbyist brewing and learning but for protracted use over weeks? No, the lead buildup would kill the drinker or make or make them really ill."  
"Probably why no one thought of doing what we're doing" Maurice winced thinking of the price tag of the cauldron compared to pewter ones. "If it were any other potion I don't think we could do it. On that note please don't mess the potion up and ruin the cauldron, the staff at St. Mungos are money-grubbing profiteering sharks."  
"Why ever did you purchase a cauldron so big anyway?" asked Mafalda curiously, Maurice sighed "Considering how much potion we need it was a lot cheaper and less complicated than buying three separate cauldrons"  
"That expensive?"  
Maurice nodded "I'm thinking of setting up a grower for the ginger root and maybe a scarab beetle farm in the attic" thinking that without the group splitting the cost he would have been far more reluctant to buy one.  
Mafalda nodded understanding Maurice's real reasoning "Doubling as a low maintenance pet for Mile, What about newts?"  
"Mr. Jigger says that a new species of newt was discovered in the Amazon last month that can regenerate whole organs, I'm waiting for the trials to see what potions it can be used in. If it's cleared for wit sharpening usage I might be able to set up a breeding tank sometime next year or the year after, until then I'm just buying the livers."  
A brief silence then Bunnie giggled "Imagine if ya'd got a pet Armadillo"  
Maurice shuddered and walked out the door to general amusement with a parting comment "I draw the line at farming animal bile, thank you very much"

22nd, January, LC-39A, Kennedy, Merritt Island, Florida, United States  
Paradoxically, no one paid attention to the small humanoid being scuttling through the supposedly highly secured military base freely without an escort, But that was the nature of house elves, to remain unseen, sometimes with the aid of magic.  
So the house-elf scuttled onward, an American scientific journal clutched in one hand and a cloth pouch in the other, spotting what he was looking for the house-elf vanished and reappeared in his goal. Carefully placing the pouch to an interior wall with a sticking charm and layering a concealment charm on the pouch the elf nodded to itself and quietly vanished.  
Reappearing on a distant hill the elf could only watch as his master's last wish was either fulfilled or yet again delayed. It wasn't long, the house-elf watched as Space Shuttle Discovery launched itself into the sky on a column of fire, taking with it is crew and their unknowing cargo, a non-descript pouch and the gold locket embossed with a emerald studded snake hidden within it.  
On its fourteenth mission into space, a day into its estimated eight day flight, The Space Shuttle Discovery vanished.


	27. February 1992

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Magical international politics, a thief lurks, the resident ninja sources unconventional sketchy material for Miles, Maurice and Susan sneak out to see a movie. Time travelers will travel and Wizards Unite.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

Magical Congress of the United States of America, 1st February 1992  
Madam President Seraphina Picquery re-elected to power in Magical Congress of the United States of America, more commonly known by their acronym of MACUSA, after a long absence from the political scene, sighed as she picked up another file with age-worn hands. Her once vibrant blonde hair had faded to silver and keen brown eyes surrounded by wrinkles a mark of the time that had passed since her younger days. Duty had compelled her to return and present herself for re-election to her old office as the other candidate had been so unsuitable that she genuinely feared for her nation if the man was elected. She hadn't been the only retired president asked by the secret service no less to return, but she had been the only one to accept.  
Next to her stood Captain M. P. Carneirus, A surprisingly spry for an eighty or ninety-ish-year-old wizard, he'd joined MACUSA Auror forces as a young graduate of Ilvermony straight out of school, steamrolled his way into the position of Captain of Aurors and in the stereotype of quirky wizards everywhere and refused to be promoted since then, no matter how many commendations he won all because apparently, the office space of the Captain of Aurors was to die for. Still despite the eccentricity, the man was incredibly competent and as far as Seraphina was concerned it was nice to have someone on her side from the old days.  
"-as you can see Madam President we have had an unforgivable ongoing breach of security for the past year" finished Captain Carneirus shifting another classified document over for her to peruse.  
Seraphina took a deep measured breath as she tried to understand the enormity of the disaster facing her country "Call me Seraphina, So for all intents and purposes MACUSA's Real-Time Hex Indicator map, the Magical Exposure Threat Level Measurer and every other monitoring device we have available to track magical outbursts have been giving off false readings for the past year while actually being completely inactive." She pulled up another file "and its highly likely that the same has happened to other countries across the pond and we are simply the first to discover it?" incredulous was not a feeling Seraphina had much experience with until now.  
Captain Carneirus nodded grimly "The Chief and Director both had nervous breakdowns when they heard the news, it's the reason I'm the one delivering this debriefing and I fully expect the Director to retire. Who knows how many incidents have been seen and remained un-obliviated?"  
Seraphina made a snap decision "Contact the ICW and schedule an emergency meeting with them as soon as possible in a secure location, as of now I'm declaring a Level Four Danger alert"

3rd February, Hogwarts, Seventh Floor  
The silencing charms worked like literal charms, the similarly applied quake suppression enchantment glowed with a corona of suppressed heat as the black-clad witch flung blasting spell after blasting spell at the seemingly indestructible wall, Usually, the self-proclaimed greatest thief in the world used subtler methods of breaking and entry but endless days of frustration with what promised to be the motherload of ancient riches hiding just behind a wall had resulted in the entirely accidental discovery of the walls resistance to heavy-duty blasting charms.

Library, Hogwarts  
Lee Jordan slept on obliviously, a victim of a potent delayed sleeping draught in his dinner, destined to wake up hours later with the paragraph entitled 'A Study of Magical Geodes' printed in reverse across his face and a grumpy Madam Prince looming behind him with metaphorical fire in her eyes at the drooled and abused library book.

4th February, Forbidden Forest, The Ravine  
"I think we're maybe going about this the wrong way" Maurice realized staring up at the gigantic tree Miles had selected for them to turn into a treehouse.  
"What's wrong, Sugar?" asked Bunnie wordlessly passing a bottle of water to him which he accepted gratefully. Maurice took a swig and gestured at the entire ravine, "I think we shouldn't be cutting down trees older than the castle, it just doesn't seem right."  
"I see what you mean" spoke Neville ambling over and accepting a bottle from Bunnie sitting down on a nearby tree root with a heartfelt sigh. "We do have a whole forest to work with and building like this can't be healthy for the trees either"  
"Maybe we could make some log cabins and stuff like that under the trees?"  
"Wouldn't the tree roots and branches disturb the foundations?"  
Maurice scoffed "In a few hundred years maybe, nothing we'd have to worry about and even then there are spells."  
Neville snapped his fingers in a eureka moment before rifling through his pocket for a notebook to write in "There are spells like that, I completely forgot"  
"Best herbologist in our year" yawned Maurice with a teasing glint in his eyes, Bunnie chuckled.  
"I've been more focused on architecture to brush up on my Herbology Maurice" Neville snarked back dryly face pink.  
"Welp, Today's a wash, Lunch?" asked Bunnie thumbing the direction she'd arrived from a large stone bench with a cloth covering and a large picnic hamper.  
"So how goes the surveying?" Spoke Susan from where she sat cleaning the approaching groups disassembled telescopes in preparation for the night's stargazing session. "Neville's rediscovered his herbologist roots and wants to grow our houses" Maurice ducked a halfhearted swipe from Neville with a grin.  
"I did not say that" spoke Neville primly "What I said is that there are spells we need to cast before we even think of building or else we'll damage the ravine"  
Bunnie though of one of her godfather's many lessons "We should prolly look at Uncles books fer how ta build stuff too"  
Maurice yawned again sprawling lazily on the cloth next to Susan and closing his eyes to amused chuckles.

4th February, Hogwarts, Seventh Floor  
"The detonator connects to the…. C4…" The future greatest magical thief in the world hummed merrily to herself as she carefully stuck the last wire in the putty, sauntering off further down the corridor trailing red wire behind her.

5th floor, Music Classroom, Hogwarts  
Contrary to most mundane schools the sound in the music room did not echo through the hallways for several reasons, firstly the Hogwarts resident charms master had charmed the door and secondly, so those within could hone their lyrical skill in peace.  
So here it was that the music room found itself with a line of students at the door auditioning to join the music club or at least the singing part of it.  
The club had an oddly restricted membership style wherein the earliest the student could join was in second year but those who sought to make a career could audition in the latter half of first year. The reason being to see if the student could adjust to the timetabling and keep a decent grade level which as the years went by would become more and more crammed with practices.  
You didn't have to be a singer to join though, some joined to learn as a hobby or to show off their skill with musical instruments, this fact Hermione Granger observed even as she continued singing from the small podium in front of Professor Flitwick and a panel of carefully selected music students.

"-Trapped in a cage-

-No matter what I do when-

-I'm thinking; bout you-

-even the stage turns blue-"

The lyrics Hermione had written herself rang clear and loud all her social anxiety locked away so tightly it wasn't visible, though the Calming Draught she'd brewed beforehand certainly helped. Coming to a stop at the end of her song to a smattering of clapping and applause Hermione accepted a glass of water with a small smile at the professor "Well done Miss Granger!" applauded Filius Flitwick "Very well done indeed! I had no idea you had such lyrical talent… It was simply marvelous! I see now why you chose to join the music club, such passion, such raw potential..."  
"She has exceptional grades so far and-" the Ravenclaw Prefect Nicolas Grimmett showed the color-coded timetable Hermione had left at the table "-excellent organizational skills, I don't see why we don't let her join a year early, it'd be criminal to wait."  
Flitwick agreed "Such talent must indeed be honed, Do you have a stage name in mind?"  
"I have some ideas.." Spoke Hermione smiled beginning to feel like she'd finally found her place.

6th February, Hogwarts, Seventh Floor  
The extremely dedicated thief held her breath as her diagnostic charms skittered across the patch of wall text filling her journal with complicated arithmetic equations, It would take her a while to decipher them, years probably, but it wasn't like that hidden room was the only hidden treasure Hogwarts had to offer…

13th February, Potions class  
Maurice waited as the rush from the students leaving the class died down, Susan was combing a hand through her hair as she waited for the glass vials from their lesson to soak the washing basin. Today Professor Slughorn had taught the class how to brew the Wiggenweld Potion and Maurice had been quietly faux whimpering each time his favorite snack, Moly was added to Susan's sadistic amusement. Still, it was a useful healing potion with a very long shelf life, so after getting the potion professors ok that their potion was safe to use the two had begun bottling the potion for their own inventory in the clubhouse. Right now Susan was taking her turn washing the empty ingredient vials while Maurice stuffed his face with leftover Moly. Sighing in satisfaction Maurice added the now empty Moly jar to the water basin and sat next to Susan on a stool. "Do you want to go to the cinema with me today?" Susan continued carding her hair unsatisfied with the potion fume greasiness and met Maurice's gaze.  
"Where are we going?"  
'And here comes the tricky bit' Maurice thought "London"  
Susan paused "I can't go to London like this" This being the fact she was a princess, had a busy schedule and currently needed a shower.  
Maurice smiled faintly as Susan self consciously fidgeted with her hair he reached forward and clasped her hand still "You need to relax, besides I won't tell if you don't." Maurice gave Susan a winning smile which had her smiling in spite of herself still it wasn't just herself she was worried about.  
"What about Miles? Shouldn't you be picking him up this afternoon?"  
"He's on an overnight science camp trip with his school club"  
Miles had tested into the last year of primary school and would be undergoing another placement after graduation to high school, only waiting so long as the school he wanted wasn't going to accept new students in the middle of the term, not even pint-sized geniuses.  
"You realize I'm in danger as a princess right?"  
Maurice waved off her worries "No one will even know we're gone and your tutor is away reporting to your aunt and won't be back till tomorrow and if we leave now we can have the whole day, my treat."  
Susan quirked an eyebrow "You'd be missing history class" she pointed out, to which after a brief pause to contemplate that statement Maurice snorted and Susan sniggered, Because really Binns class was a joke, they'd been already been consistently skipping it and Susan was tutoring him anyway.

The Knothole  
Maurice adjusted his woolly jumper and smoothed out the wrinkles in his blue jeans. Susan and Bunnie were in another room going over clothes she could wear in mundane London and not stick out.  
Finally emerging from the impromptu changing room Susan wore comfortable beige jeans held up by a purple belt and a white t-shirt with a blue denim jacket thrown on top, she tugged the large brown sunhat Bunnie had lent her to hide her face subconsciously "How do I look?"  
"Ya look fine darling, ya'll blend right in too" spoke Bunnie exasperatedly tugging the hat up slightly "So calm down!"  
"You look nice, Sue" Maurice agreed with a grin rolling his shoulders, "So where first?"  
Susan shrugged not knowing much about mundane London "You lead, Show me the best you got"  
"Well if that's the case…" drawled Maurice teasingly withdrawing and dangling two simple chains from his jean pocket in front of Susan "We'll probably need these"  
Realizing what he was dangling in front of her Susan was surprised "You finished the intent detectors?"  
Maurice's grin got wider and added "and added an age obscuring charm and a little something I like to call the notice-me-but-ask-me-not charm, this way if someone gets curious about two eleven-year-olds in London they'll notice but decide someone else will probably deal with it leaving us alone and able to do anything we want"  
"That's quite brilliant" Susan admired letting Bunnie fasten the necklace about her neck "Really, really sketchy, but brilliant"  
Maurice smirked "Having second thoughts?"  
Susan sniffed imperiously "If I have to hear one more person simper in my presence I may hex someone, besides just because I'm a princess doesn't mean I can't have my own adventures"  
"You go, girl!" Bunnie fist-bumped the princess in agreement.  
Maurice held out a hand kneeling slightly, letting Susan approach to pick her up in a princess carry.  
"Time to rock and roll!" Maurice sped out the open door with a chuckle.  
Watching the two leave Bunnie closed the door and went to the recreation room where Neville sat with Fred and Blaise pouring over the various catalogs they'd procured from somewhere.  
Fred and Blaise seemed to be having a spirited debate about Sneakoscope models whilst Neville was occasionally taking notes on things from the catalogs.  
"What ya doing" asked Bunnie sprawling herself over the back of the sofa, Neville startled slightly and handed her one of the magazines with a guilty start it took her a moment to realize what she was reading but when she did her eyes went wide "Why ja have The Anarchists Cookbook?" examining the other magazine's titles Bunnie felt her heart sink at the various pro-anarchy anti-establishment material. Neville waved her off frantically "It's nothing bad! Its just Miles is interested in mundane techie stuff and the mundane world changes so fast so I figure if he understood the underlying basics-"

Bunnies eyes narrowed flipping to a page about the creation of narcotics pointedly and wordlessly "-I'm editing the really bad stuff out" Grumbled Neville sheepishly, dragging the tip of his wand along a highlighted passage and erasing the ink underneath with the Smudge-removing charm as a demonstration erasing the selected text, "Where did ya even get this?" Bunnie breathed her accent momentarily fading in her shock.  
On the other side of the room, Blaise raised his hand unspoken even as he and Fred continued to debate something or other causing Bunnie to sigh heavily in agitation because, really, ninjas. "Budge up an' gimme" Settled herself beside Neville she resolved to act as his minder and proofreader in this, just in case he missed something important. It was probably Alastor Moody speaking, albeit in shoulder devil form, but it never hurt to be prepared, constant vigilance and all that and it wasn't like they couldn't brew even deadlier potions, poisons and explosions than pretty much everything in these books anyway.

10:00 pm, Hogwarts Lake  
The lake sparkled from the light shed by the waxing moon, Maurice chuckled as Susan leaned against him as they slowly walked up to the castle together.  
"Did you like the movie?" He asked grinning, she chuckled idly twirling her borrowed hat. "I liked it and I'm kind of sad that the magical world doesn't have an equivalent"  
"Yet" Maurice interjected "They'll catch on eventually"  
Wind dancing across the grass making it ripple like water "I liked the dress" Susan admitted shyly causing Maurice to look her up and down speculatively causing the princess to laugh "Maybe not as… poofy though"  
"It would work on you though" Spoke Maurice imagining an older Susan in the golden ballroom dress from the movie, further rumination was interrupted as Hopkirk near sprinted down the steps towards the duo, skidded to a halt before them dignity thrown out the window in the face of urgency "Princess! There you are! There's been an emergency! You are needed at home at once!"

14th February, 5:55 am, Liberty Island, New York, United States of America  
"I'm impressed that you managed to 'book' this place for the meeting" spoke Madam President Seraphina Picquery quietly to her newly promoted Chief of Staff Carneirus. Carneirus waved her off "We've enlisted the aid of several non-maj's to block the roads and compelled several non-magical criminals to vandalize the various tourist barges and block the river, we've warded the island against undue interest and satellite imaging. We've even enlisted Miss Miraphorum to run some weather magic interference-"  
"Wasn't she a reporter for the New York Ghost?"  
He grinned "Sharp memory Madam President, Miss Miraphorum is a master of weather magic, if we didn't know better you would think there was no magic involved, apparently it's going to get mighty windy tonight with thick banks of fog grounding all air traffic and regular traffic"  
"That doesn't seem all that natural" murmured Seraphina.  
Carneirus smirked "With luck, the no-Maj's will think it's a result of pollution and finally start attempting cleaning up their own messes for once."  
"You'll get no argument from me on that score" Seraphina muttered a staunch advocate for the preservation of all creatures magical or otherwise and their habitats.  
"Over there! They're arriving" hissed Carneirus.  
"Again, good job!"  
"Thank you Madam President!"  
The island had a large array of seating set out a table for each delegate and the leader of their respective governments, usually gathering so many important heads of states together was a nightmarish task. To expedite the affair Carneirus had forced the issue by having everyone involved swear an unbreakable oath to keep the meeting secret for a month after it happened and not inform anyone of it at any time.  
Thus this meeting of magical nations was entirely secret and possibly the most well-guarded event in wizarding history, despite being recently 'promoted' Carneirus's experience and knowledge shone through allowing him to offer up to date color commentary and help him point out the new arrivals to the re-elected Seraphina and offer pertinent anecdotes and advice unprompted.  
"That's Babajide Akingbade the Supreme Mugwump after Dumbledore retired"  
"He looks very young"  
"He earned 12 NEWTs at the age of fourteen, three masteries by the time he was fifteen and he's currently working on four more, regardless of his age he is a very formidable wizard"  
In came the next delegate.  
"That the British delegate and the heads of the new royal family King Tiberius and Queen Amelia"  
"The Ugandan delegate Momolu Wotorson"  
"He's aged remarkably well"  
"The Chinese Delegate Madam Ya Zhou"  
"Terrifying woman" spoke Carneirus with a forced serene smile still firmly convinced that formidable witch could smell fear from a distance.  
"The swiz delegate Heinrich Eberstadt"  
"Oh not him again" grumbled Seraphina needing no introduction remembering the man from all those years ago.  
The delegates continued to come, adding Indian, Hungarian, Mongolian, Russian and Thai delegate without much remark, the Irish delegate Madam Patricia Rakepick and Prime Minister Finbar Quigley on the other hand got plenty of comments that went straight from helpful to something that sounded not out of place from a peanut gallery.  
"Why a man so easily intimidated decided to join the cutthroat world of politics I will never know."  
"I dunno Madam President, Gwenog Jones can be pretty terrifying…" Carneirus shuddered theatrically with a chuckle eying the still arriving delegates and various heads of states.  
"The Brazilian delegate João Coelho as well as the Brazilian Minister Master Libatius Borage-"  
Seraphina was surprised at that "The potions master?"  
"The same one."  
"United States delegate Arnold Guzman"  
"Great man fantastic diplomat"  
Carneirus nodded fervently in agreement as the man joined them at their table then spotted the Australian delegate Royston Idlewind who needed no introduction after the stunt he'd tried to pull.  
"I admire the man's spine in returning to politics after what happened" spoke Guzman quietly to the duo. The unsaid 'and not much else' rang loud and clear.  
"Do you think anyone would mind if I opened this meeting with a dissimulator?" hissed Seraphina to her aide waspishly while glaring daggers at the delegate.  
"Please refrain from causing a diplomatic incident Madam President. No matter how well deserved it would be." Carneirus trailed off into an unhappy grumble.  
The Greek delegate Mentor Metaxas however, had no such compunctions and strode past the Australian delegate with his wand proudly transfigured into a dissimulator and hanging out his pocket on a golden chain causing more than one person to ruthlessly repress their own giggles even as Idlewind tried no to show any reaction to the personal insult, the Chinese Delegate Madam Ya Zhou an open Quidditch fanatic was also grinning savagely at the reference.  
The meeting when it finally started took several hours and had no breaks indicating the seriousness of the issue, winding down and having gone over the issues presented the British and American Head Unspeakable's summarised what the international investigations had found that eventually boiled down to a simpler summary that they really should have started off with "..So from what our joint investigations have concluded the break-ins in our government's respective seats of power coincide with the raising of what our International Research Teams have termed The Great Sphere, a ward of great but subtle power spanning the globe"  
"And because of The Great Sphere, all wards for the detection of magic in non-magical places bar none have become, for lack of better word or term, completely and utterly useless."  
"We can surmise that the wards were raised around September 1991 and will not fall until the following date of September 1992"  
There was silence at the delegates and heads of state took this in, feeling incredibly uneasy in the knowledge that if any witch, wizard or creature violated the Statute of Secrecy in any way the breach itself would be impossible to detect, the damage itself impossible to counteract.  
The only thing now is to figure out some solution for the colossal mess the wizarding world had found itself in.

17th February  
Bunnie hissed and sucked at the cut on her thumb glaring down at the disassembled purple casing she was trying to polish Neville carefully pulled her hand away to examine the cut with a wince "Are these prosthetics meant to be so dangerous?" he asked reaching for a handy bottle of dittany "Wouldn't need ta do this if ah remembered the dang waterproof charm" cleaning the workings of the prosthetics of mud and sand particles from an accidental trip, literally, into the river was a miserable experience. "When'd did you get so good at this?" Neville smiled "Miles is teaching himself about mundane machines, I just find it interesting so I'm learning too. Though while he wants to build a giant mecha I'll settle for having fun that with that weapon-smithing guide." Bunnie smiled whilst inwardly resolving to never ever let Moody and Neville meet.

20th February, Hogwarts  
"Mr. Bluewind the feast tonight requires the attendance of all students as there is a very important announcement coming up, You may bring your younger brother if you wish as you will not make it home tonight given its nature." Maurice nodded somewhat puzzled at Professor Lucretia's brusqueness though he could tell it was not directed at him.  
"Maurice we need to talk, now" spoke Susan pleasantly discretely tugging at her acorn necklace a designated signal for Maurice to cast a subtle redirection ward to defray any attention for the two to slip away.  
Out of sight, Maurice picked up Susan in a princess carry while Susan applied the disillusionment charm on them both, Maurice zoomed away to The Knothole where Susan removed the invisibility and promptly leaned into his arms "Oh Maurice.. It's horrible!"  
Immediately Maurice felt concerned knowing that this was more serious than a school issue "There going to be a broadcast later tonight about it I wanted to tell you days ago but it's only now that the secrecy charm had been lifted and I can tell you about it."  
And really horrible didn't even begin to describe it, leaving Maurice feeling naught but cold trepidation creeping from his heart to his toes and making the hair on the back of his neck rise. Later in the Great Hall Maurice sat solemnly with Susan and a sleepy Miles curled into his side at the table Susans hand holding his and Miles under the table comfortingly as Babajide Akingbade the Supreme Mugwump of ICW made his first international address on the wireless radio which held pride of place in the Great Hall on the teacher's table, his voice boomed strongly across the silent hall "Calling all magical's! This is the International Confederation of Wizards with an emergency address! Our magical community is at risk of exposure, Traces of magic are appearing all over the world, revealing magic to non-magical eyes, in this time of chaos we must stand united and act together…"

21st February, In an Unknown Location  
It was a long walk through the section that he'd internally labeled the Research and Development Department but Augustus Rookwood, former Unspeakable and former Death Eater and now current Second-in-Command of Grindelwald's forces could not have cared less. The past few months had been full of research, Grindelwald had taken along an accompaniment of troops for a jaunt around the world tracking down some of the harder to reach items while Operation Hidebound was still in effect. The fact that Operation Hidebound had been discovered did nothing to stop the steady flow of obscure artifacts items, creatures, prisoners and occasionally new recruits that had begun trickling in, that trickle rapidly turning into a flood. Managing all the resources had been a task in logistics better left to those suited to it, a large team of squibs all reasonably highly ranked in non-magical armies around the world recruited at the start of Grindelwald's renewed though altered campaign, assigned projects and jobs around Grindelwald's various newly established bases. The hiring of squibs had confused Augustus though he had soon seen the light regarding his leader's motives as their mundane training rendered them a valuable and irreplaceable commodity. Who else could locate an entire intact supersonic strategic heavy bomber let alone nineteen of them in three days and acquire them with calculated magic usage in less than an hour and make it so they weren't missed or reported by anyone? Augustus wished the enchanters retrofitting the recent requisitions with every trick in their magical arsenals both luck and very much envied them the opportunity.  
"Sir, Leader has returned" reported Cam, the researcher Grindelwald had personally marked as the future sub-boss of the Revolutionaries Army Repair Echelons when the division became active pending the results at the proposed test site. His leader looked quite happy noted Augustus who fell in line when Grindelwald approached and gestured wordlessly to follow.  
Grindelwald had something of a bounce in his step and upon entering the classified laboratory further in the building and being told to activate his mage sight it was not hard to see why.  
"What is that?" spoke Augustus voice full of awe seeing now for the first time the sheer volume of magic emanating from the little black stone on the pedestal.  
Grindelwald chuckled in reminisce stoic expression fading away "I suppose a legacy of my misspent youth, it has a rather unique property however useless it is to my cause. So I turned it over to my researchers after I had it retrieved to see if they could make it useful. It should be interesting to see what they do with it." Grindelwald paused both gazing at the researchers hovering around the stone before Grindelwald spoke up "How goes the field testing of your little side project, the, Pueraria Metallicus?" Augustus chuckled "We're ready whenever you are, we were unable to make it water-resistant however and early testing indicates its best deployment would be against entrenched positions and it will need time ideally two to three weeks to mature before it really gets going then it is unstoppable"  
Grindelwald nodded a glint of something indecipherable to Augustus in his eyes "Good, how long until you can get it ready to deploy?  
"In an hour if you wish" Augustus managed not to squeak at the predatory look in Grindelwald's eyes.  
"Excellent, I have just the target in mind, though I won't deny the feeling of nostalgia in giving the order" Augustus needed no prompting to know where he wanted the weapon deployed and this time Augustus recognized the emotion in the former dark revolutionary's gaze, it was malicious glee.  
Still, that did beg a question "Sir, May I ask why that place?" after all that man had joined the ICW Taskforce months ago.  
"Hmm? I suppose I like to keep my adversaries confused, this little feint should point them in the wrong direction altogether"

22nd February, Hogwarts Quidditch Stadium  
Maurice wobbled a bit as the wind hit the banner he held aloft per Susan's strict orders "This is really boring Sue"  
"Shh" she hushed him "We support our friends, Maurice and if you actually tried I'm sure you'd enjoy the game"  
Maurice huffed at braced the banner in a knot in the wooden seats, glancing at the game of Quidditch with a huff, finally Maurice quieted down allowing Susan to enjoy the game.  
"The snitch is on top of the flagpole at the south end of the pitch" Maurice informed Susan dryly she lifted her binoculars and sure enough Maurice was right, despite both of them being seated in the northern side of the pitch.  
Susan lost track of the golden sphere between one blink and the next.  
Again Maurice spoke "Now it's skimming the lawn in the east next to the badger banner" Again Maurice was proven right and Susan stared flatly at him "You realize you're completely ruining the entire sport for me right now?"  
Miles who was sat at Maurice's left between the two piped up "Why don't you play big brother?"  
Susan looked curious despite herself and Maurice rolled his shoulders "It'd be cheating and I'd rather run, I'm faster and I look way less silly running than straddling a flimsy-looking tree branch in midair"  
Susan flicked a bit of popcorn at his face causing Maurice to roll his eyes and protest "Well it's true!"  
"I'm not one for flying myself" spoke Neville warily eying the Quidditch players "at least the non-magical's make their things look nice and way less accident-prone"  
The group flinched as one when Fred's broom got clipped by a bludger and spiraled down to land to land with a thump, miraculously Maurice perked up "What are you so happy for?" asked Susan.  
"You spotted it too then?" Spoke Blaise with a small smirk at Maurice. Susan still looked somewhat upset on Fred's behalf a look that slowly melting into confusion then to disbelief as Maurice continued speaking "I could be wrong but I think that's the first time a seeker ever caught the snitch by literally stomping on it."  
Sure enough, Fred picked up the somewhat dented Snitch and waved it in the air, the crowd went wild.

ICW Safehouse Kitzbuhel, Austria  
"Are you sure you want to do this?" spoke Albus to the indescribably brave man before him, Albus himself and the other members of his strike team nowhere near as brave at their impending tasks.  
Inscrutable bronze eyes met sky blue as the former Quidditch player tightened his armor beneath his rather dated mundane business suit "I was 8 years old when the second world war started, I was 9 when three so-called officers of the Hitler-Jugend decided it was acceptable to beat one of my best friends from the local school for the crime of being a different race, in total it took two years for my parents to decide to abandon our hard-earned home and livelihood and flee to England to escape the vile depravity our former countrymen had fallen to." Randolph Keitch's gaze was steel as he retrained his long faded German accent with every word for authenticity "I found out after the war that my childhood friends had all either been put down like dogs by the vermin or had betrayed basic decency by becoming vermin" Keitch spoke smoothly with an edge of venom in his tone "I was too young to act back then in any meaningful manner, the very least I can do is lead you to Photobericht Hoffmann"  
"We can hardly begin to tell you how grateful we are for your help Mr. Keitch" spoke Silver "With the obscuring enchantments the German ministry put up we'd never succeed otherwise"  
In the clean-up after Grindelwald and to deter any resurgence attempt the reformed German magical ministry had taken the non-magical methods of destroying the offending symbols a step further by placing subtle wards to deter interest or general recognition of the landmarks in the next generation. The spell was not applied to the monuments however, it was somehow in a feat of magical ingenuity tied to the countries border. This magical 'tagging' deterred any macabre tourism and was powered by a person's magic, it also meant that later maps released did not include several landmarks or locations and prior maps were obscured or lost, as an unforeseen side effect even traveling in time to before the wards were set up, which they were doing, did not remove the enchantment of those who had it. Silver was the only person in the group who had not been to Germany and thus had not been tagged but had no idea what he was looking for. It was Albus who had recommended finding some who had lived nearby to their goal, Albus the reader of all things magical, fictional and factual who had remembered a single paragraph long snippet in an old autobiography. Wherein one of the co-founders of the Comet Trading Company had cited the propaganda of the nearby photography studio as the reasons for his fortunate move to England in his childhood.  
In other words, Randolph Keitch had been unfortunate enough to have lived right next door to 'Photobericht Hoffmann' the home of the Nazi propaganda machine in one of its many iterations.  
Mr. Keitch carefully examined the identification papers the ICW had carefully forged for the looming trip through time "Are you sure you can identify this Augurey woman? She sounds quite formidable and deadly"  
Silver sighed "Quite sure and everyone got a look at my memories in the pensieve"  
"If you say so" spoke Keitch before turning to Dumbledore "So I see you're not joining this venture Dumbledore, where or rather when, are you heading?"  
Albus uncomfortably adjusted his own suit a dull black and white tuxedo considerably more modern than his compatriots. "New Mexico 1946, there has been some unusual temporal activity there that bears investigating"

Hogwarts Quidditch Stadium  
Ron cheered his brother Fred on as the Gryffindor caught the snitch by stomping on it. It looked like all that training over the summer had really helped Fred's seeking skills, odds were this would go into the Hogwarts Quidditch Histories. Ron began making his way to the pitch through the stands to congratulate his brother, Ron had no time to even blink something hit him hard on the back of the head, the world faded to black.


	28. March 1992

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luna is Luna, Ron is conveniently awake, Vincent Crabbe WAS Dingo, briefly. Maurice's debut as a hero and Lee is done with everything. Basically, everyone at Hogwarts just has a bad day in general.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

March 1st, 1992, The Rookery, Ottery St Catchpole, Devon  
"Daddy, do you think if I went to Hogwarts I could make a friend?" Airily spoken with cheer Xenophilius Lovegood, call me Xeno, nevertheless felt his daughter's innocent question fall like a hammer blow on his heart, causing it to skip a beat.  
His response to his daughter Luna's question as her hopeful pale blue almost silvery eyes peered into his soul based on his own knowledge was less than truthful "I believe you can do whatever you want" that white lie had felt like gargling acid. Xeno vividly remembered his own time at school, not just Hogwarts, of the bullying he himself received for his fascination with undiscovered magical creatures and similar concepts. Lying to his daughter who was so much like himself and thus likely to receive the same mistreatment and misunderstanding was unforgivable and Xeno did not relish seeing his trusting daughter lose her faith in her father.  
Now, the result of that reluctance to succumb to the inevitable stared at him from the large crate of unusual semi-sentient objects that he'd purchased at the Auror Auction. And yes he had questioned why the name had stayed the same when Witch Queen Bones had changed everything else. The Auror Auction was a place where goods seized by the law were sold, Not many people attended these events as the items on display which, though thoroughly checked were oftentimes a bit strange, the customer could end up purchasing some very hinky objects with more purposes than advertised most times to the non-fatal detriment of the customer, even so, these auctions were expensive.  
Wearing a specially made set of Spectrespecs as glasses to the auction had made people underestimate him and encouraged the auction-goers not to bid on what Xeno bid on as well as find exactly what he was looking for.  
Xeno would never directly tell anyone of the quite illegal abilities the glasses held, X-ray abilities being the very least of its abilities, The glasses when correctly activated highlighted specific types of magic, unraveling the codes and crosswords in his newspaper the Quibbler allowed the user to unlock more and more functions.  
The spells that had gone into the glasses had been invented by his wife the previous year on Valentine's Day. However, his dear beloved had erroneously performed the spells directly on herself instead of using a medium, thinking it was safe.  
The sensory feedback of so many additional senses introduced at once had overloaded her nervous system and brain causing a horrific series of seizures and eventual aneurysm as her brain was boiled in her skull from the magic superheating her blood where the enchantments had been cast.  
Xeno had been in the kitchen at the time and come running to the laboratory at the sound of his wife and daughter screaming, one in pain, one in terror. He'd been helpless to reverse the spell as it could only be reversed by the caster and his beloved had been in no fit state to do anything. So his beloved wife had died mere moments after he'd arrived blood running from her eyes leaving a traumatized daughter and grieving husband behind.  
She had always referred to the spell as her crowning achievement and masterwork, next to Luna of course and so Xeno had decided to honor her probable wishes by creating the enchanted Spectrespecs.  
Using the dotty looking joke glasses, the original set he'd cast the spell on, Xeno had wandered the stacks of items at the auction and picked anything that met the requirements, six enchanted mirrors, sixteen Remembrall's, five small portraits, a set of linked communication mirrors and linked journals, one very unusual book that gave of strange mental magic readings that bore investigation and a very large pensieve.  
The myriad of items had attracted some unusual looks when Xeno had purchased them but he'd merely distracted them with a nonsensical statement about a made-up magical creature getting more and more fantastical in the description until the curious people made up an excuse to leave. Unraveling the spells on all of the magical items had been rather hard, replicating the enchantments just as hard.  
One item, in particular, defied analysis at almost every turn, the unusual book had been part of the auction of items salvaged from the ruins of Malfoy Manor, it now sat on his desk merrily defying all attempts to identify its nature.  
Appearing to be a blank leather-bound journal its unusual enchantments had stymied Xeno's investigation. The fact that it was from the Malfoy Family made him suspect the diary was something nefarious. Scrolling through the enchantments on the Spectrespecs for a few more minutes he finally gained a clue as to the books true nature. The Book which Xeno had begun to capitalize in his mind had so many binding spells on it that it must be a prison! The misty mental magic within actually some unfortunate magical the Malfoy's had imprisoned! The mental magic trapped in there even registered as underage which was par for the course when the Malfoy's had been steeped in evil acts for hundreds of years. Calling his daughter through Xeno debated with her on what to do with the book, her answer wholly expected of a daughter of Lovegood "Daddy that sounds horrible, we're going to free them aren't we?" her pale eyes gleamed with the determination usually found when chasing that perfect shot of a mythical beast for their newspaper on one of their annual trips, the determination that some might call bullheadedness, of course, the answer was obvious.  
"And we can't tell the Ministry" decided Luna with the air of someone making a terrible realization.  
"Why ever not?" asked Xeno curiously agreeable but wanting to hear her reasoning.  
Luna's expression went dark with worry "Daddy! What if the Rotfang Conspiracy find out! It could be eaten by a Heliopath! You know the Ministry is still breeding them, They're man-eating fire spirits and this one is both Being and Book, it'd be like serving Dirigible Plum and Gulping Plimpy on the same plate with Gurdy Root Sauce to a Crumple-Horned Snorkack!"  
Xeno and Luna shuddered in unison at the terrible thought.  
Xeno nodded weakly resolve building "Then together we must endeavor to save life and limb of poor unfortunate lad or ladette ourselves from the evils of literacy!"  
Luna's eyes shone "Really Daddy? You mean it?" at his nod Luna raced upstairs "I'll go get the Nargle Dust!"  
"And I'll get aquavirius maggot slime from the pond!" called back Xeno heading for the closet to get an indestructible fishing net.  
Turning to the book unsure for a moment if the prisoner within could hear him Xeno spoke in a reassuring voice nevertheless. "Never fear child, you'll be free before you know it. Mayhap you could be my daughter's new friend even." The book didn't reply light merely reflecting off the golden word on the book's spine a single word visible thanks to what looked like fire damage obscuring the rest, a single word that well described the nature of the strange book prison, that of a 'Riddle'.

8:00 pm, Hogwarts Hospital Wing  
Waking up in the hospital wing was a harrowing affair concluded Ron Weasley, for one the entire experience was jarring, secondly, even after however long he'd been asleep Ron was still utterly exhausted and more than a bit confused.  
Spotting a flash of red in took him a second to identify what he was seeing, "Fred? George"  
Both brothers looked pale and drawn sat on the visitor seats, Ron's archery set and clothes arranged on the side table "What happened? Why am I in the hospital wing?" He'd only been here before a few times mostly for a pepper-up potion as the Scottish cold made him sniffle mostly.  
"We were hoping you could tell us" spoke George calmly, danger in his eyes.  
"What's the last thing you remember?" asked Fred also calmly and Ron felt the hair on the back of his neck rise in unease at his brother's strange behavior. Casting his mind back Ron tried to remember what he'd been doing last, speaking hesitantly in recollection "I was going down the stairs after Fred caught the snitch and I think… Did I get hit on the back of my head? Everything after that's a blank until I woke up just now."  
George let out a frustrated sigh "Are you sure you didn't see anyone? Anything?"  
Ron shook his head wincing at the movement bringing a hand up to his head he blinked for a moment as something unusual caught his gaze making his eyes go wide in shock. "What the-?" Strands of sea-green hair, his formerly Weasley red hair. "It's permanent" Spoke Fred apologetically handing Ron the mirror on the bedside table "Whoever attacked you hexed you to heck and back, by the time Pomfrey managed to get rid of the hexes and heal you it was impossible to remove, conflicting magic and all that" Fred really did look like he wanted to hit something or someone, hard.  
"And if we had a name we'd know who to hospitalize in-kind" explained George bluntly.  
"Was it really that bad?" spoke Ron absently as he stared at his hair color with the mirror trying to reconcile the hair color with himself and avoid a panic attack.  
"It's the 1st of March you've been unconscious since the Quidditch match" explained Fred tiredly. There wasn't really much to say to that, magical healing was usually quick and efficient, that it had taken so long was somewhat scary and getting off with just an unwanted hair coloring was lucky. "Happy Birthday" Ron grumbled to himself with a yawn "Go to sleep, we can celebrate tomorrow. Right now you look exhausted" Ron was too tired to argue with Fred as the Hogwarts mediwitch who had evidently been listening bustled in and shooed off the twins like a whirlwind before also telling him to go to sleep. Still, as he drifted off to sleep Ron wondered who would do this and immediately thought of the obvious suspects, his dormmates…

2nd March, 3:00 am, Underground Caverns  
Lying innocuously on the ground of the underground tunnel, one of many failed attempts to lay siege to Hogwarts during one of the many Goblin rebellions, a magical plant carefully transplanted from pot to the magically rich dry earth several days ago continued to spread its thorny silvery vines along the floor of the cavern, the residents of the castle and grounds above none the wiser. Now as the seconds passed the vines seemed to react to an invisible signal becoming larger reaching blindly in the darkness, piercing the earth above them with one direction in mind, directly up.

6:00 am, Hogwarts Lawn  
"I still can't fathom how you messed up so badly, Neon! I said! Neon green! Not whatever aqua rubbish you managed!" Hissed Gregory Goyle to the panting Vincent Crabbe who was lugging the battered trunk across the lawn to the Black Lake protested "Oh come on! The magic was all screwy you can't blame me for that! Why are we even doing this anyway?"  
Gregory sighed "We want Weasley gone right?"  
Vincent nodded as Gregory explained not for the first time "We need to make him go away by himself so we don't get incriminated, so we make him as unwelcome as possible until he goes running home and doesn't come back"  
"How you going to make him not come back, Greg?"  
Gregory sighed in agitation at Vincent's clueless look "The letter to your dad remember? Please tell me you sent it?"  
Vincent thought back, Right the letter to his father telling him about Weasley's potion mistake and his home address with a side suggestion of murder and arson..  
"I forgot to write it" Vincent admitted with a wince.  
"This is why I'm the smart one and you're the idiot" hissed Gregory in aggravation eyes fixed ahead at the lake "I don't know why I hang around with someone as useless as you!"  
There was a crack like thunder and a yelp as the ground began to shake, Gregory held still turning around to look and felt his heart drop. Where Vincent had once stood with Weasley's stolen trunk there was a massive crevice as if the earth itself had cracked open, massive silvery metallic vines were growing, reaching for the sky like some demented herbology project gone wrong. Further away Gregory watched as the vines crept up along the castle's walls thickening and casually cracking the stone where it could not find a window. All thoughts of Vincent likely fate between the fall down the crevice and the crushing vines with razor-sharp thorns vanished as Gregory began to run away from the castle, very fast.

6:05 am, Hogwarts Hospital Wing  
It was the scratching that awoke him, at first he thought it was a small animal but as his eyes adjusted to being awake he spotted Madam Pomfrey waving frantically trying to get his attention. It wasn't the wisest thing he could have done reaching for his bow and arrows and quietly lining up a shot with one of the grasping vines. Though luckily pinning the vine to a portrait frame before it could obstruct the way to Pomfrey's office surprisingly didn't make it go into a murder frenzy. Following the witch quietly with the other patients into her office Pomfrey faced the door. "I can help guard the entrance if you want" Ron found himself saying quietly. Pomfrey let out a shaky breath "Those vines seek out active wand magic from what I can tell, I tried to repel them from the outer door and they just followed me right in the second I cast anything, they don't seem to react to your arrows"  
"So what now?" Ron wondered why he was being so calm about the situation and chalked it up to some sort of calming potion or spell Pomfrey had dosed him with.  
"Help me barricade the doors" There was no need to speak of any other students finding their way into the infirmary the gargantuan thorns had blocked the doors completely, light streaming in from small cracks in the vines curled around the broken windows. Yeah, he'd definitely been dosed with something.

6:06 am, Hogsmeade Village, Bluewind House  
Maurice yelped as the ground seemed to quake beneath his feet steadying the large cauldron of Wit-Sharpening potion carefully with his gloved hands thankful that he'd bottled the last of the potion for the week already "What was that?" Miles knocked frantically on the door to the laboratory and opened it speaking a mile a minute "Mauricethecastleiscoveredinthorns!"  
Running to the living room Maurice looked out the window and swore in his mind, turning to Miles Maurice gripped his shoulders and made sure he had his attention "Miles floo to Susan's home okay? I need you to tell Amelia Bones what is happening and then I need you to stay there" Miles looked unsure "Promise me!" Maurice repeated "Ok, But what about you?" murmured Miles "I'm going to find out what's happening and make sure our friends are ok"  
"But you might get hurt!" Miles looked like he was about to start shaking so Maurice pulled him into a quick tight hug meeting him at eye level doing his best to sound reassuring.  
"I'm too fast to be injured by an overgrown weed" Maurice winked with confidence he didn't feel.  
Miles vanished into green flames of the Floo Network safe thousands of miles away from danger, taking a steadying inhale Maurice sped out the door ignoring the baffled crowd just forming on the street of Hogsmeade as he made a beeline for the castle, a sonic boom causing more than one resident to jump as he flitted past.

Unknown area, Hogwarts  
Lee Jordan lay splayed on the cracked glass floor of the area he had fallen into, initially unworried by the shaking of the castle, which had quickly changed when the floor beneath him had collapsed beneath him sending him down into the dark. He'd been unconscious for approximately three minutes or possibly just dazed from the fall. The place he'd fallen into was illuminated by the light shining from below the colored glass tiles, the room itself seemed to have no walls leaving an eerie effect as the distance faded into a dark mist.  
This place with its stained glass floor and lack of walls were fundamentally terrifying in a way Lee could not even begin to describe, despite his misgivings Lee walked further into the darkness searching for an exit.

Hogwarts Lawn  
Maurice winced as he circled the castle, the great thorny vines had cracked open great big crevices in the grassy ground that even now were still rising up and curling around the castle like some demented ivy. He gave the cracks in the once pristine Hogwarts lawn a narrow berth getting as close as he dared to gaze down the crevices as far as he could, he didn't see much by virtue of the darkness and the mindless thrashing of the vines. Lighting his wand with a wave of his arm proved a foolish decision and the vines seemed to jump and lunge for him. Extinguishing the charm as fast as he'd cast it Maurice played a game of impromptu keep away until the crawling murder vine lost its interest in him, leaving him to rethink his strategy.  
The vines had already spread to the lake entrance which meant he couldn't get access through the Knothole, It looked like he'd have to get a bit creative.

Hufflepuff Common Room  
Bunnie restrained the urge to twitch as most of Hufflepuff panicked, however, most did not mean all.  
David from fifth year was sniping at the vines to great effect with a heavily enchanted pop cork gun which seemed to act like a high caliber gun with armor-piercing corks that he didn't seem to need to reload.  
Daphne was talking quietly into a two-way mirror and Dean was keeping calm somehow, inspecting the ceiling for any more cracks. So that was three people including her out of an entire house, keeping calm and not hiding under their beds in their dormitories like sniveling cowards. Granted that was a bit uncharitable to the students who weren't in the dorm at the moment. Despite being the strongest in the castle by virtue of magical limbs there was literally nothing Bunnie could do except look up at the creeping cracks appearing ominously in the ceiling of the badger's den with a sense of impending doom.

Ravenclaw Tower Common Room  
Susan, Neville and the other Ravenclaw's stared enraptured as Professor Flitwick veritably bombarded the windows with strengthening and unbreakable charms. The vines which Flitwick had unceremoniously dubbed 'Kudzu' with a copious amount of swearing between spells, smacked into the windows and tore futilely at the glass with its metal thorns. A creaking sound raised the hairs on the back of their necks as the common room entrance began to squawk in alarm with small silvery vines peeking out from slowly widening gaps in the stonework. Spotting the invasion Flitwick swore viciously then called out to the prefect "Grimmet! My office! The Grey book on construction magic on the mantle! Everyone magical concrete, right Swish, up Flick, Twirl and downward slash at the target the incantation…"  
An explosion rocked the common room and Neville went white, running towards the sound Susan and Bunnie followed him to his dorm room and witnessed the devastation.  
A large pewter cauldron left simmering unattended in the center of the room had evidently exploded after coming into contact with the creeping kudzu vines that had made their way in through a crack in the floor the unknown mixture having an unusual effect on them.  
"Neville, what exactly were you brewing in here?" Susan breathed as one of the students poked the now rusted still vine cautiously.

Slytherin Common Room  
Roger swore from underneath the fallen portrait which was also swearing or at least he assumed so, it was hissing quite furiously at least, poor snake. "Roger are you okay?" Whispered Sophie carefully levering the portrait off him "I'm fine, Why are we whispering?" Roger whispered back. Sophie pointed to the underwater lake viewing windows and… was that cracks he saw around the window panes?  
"and that" Sophie pointed at the common room entrance where the portrait which had been guarding the entrance had been shredded by what looked like massive thorns though it appeared the vines were too large to enter the room instead merely blocking it off.  
Roger levered himself to his feet with a wince at what was probably a hairline fracture in his leg and sat on the armchair "Sophie get to my room there's a green two-way mirror on the side table, bring it to me" Sophie nodded and sprinted away.

Hogwarts, Third Floor  
The tabby cat skittered across the flagstone at speed pausing at intervals to turn back into Professor McGonagall and guide the few frightened students she'd found with her forms senses away from the vines quietly urging them not to cast magic and keep following her to the exits quietly out of the castle, it seemed that the vines did not react to animagus magic and it hadn't seemed wise to test if the vines could follow noises hence the silent retreat, Following at her heels in their own, apparently unregistered, animagus forms was her defense professor Professor Ignatius who stalked along as a grizzled white tiger with grey stripes with piercing blue eyes. Likewise, his wife Lucretia stalked daintily alongside him a faded dark orange with vivid jet black stripes. Both walked to the sides of the students strong enough to bat aside any grasping vine that came close with extreme force as well as sniffing out and students in hiding.

Far beneath Hogwarts  
A single very large yellow eye opened grumpily at the strange echoing scraping sound… and closed as the being registered no threat to itself and promptly went back to sleep.

Astronomy Tower  
Blaise eyed the creeping thorns dubiously from the top of the Astronomy Tower, Omnioculars almost on a swivel to capture the 'invasion'  
"This is Skunk to Chameleon over" Blaise jerked at the voice from his pocket and fished out the communication mirror from his pocket "This is Chameleon, glad to hear you're okay Roger, what's going on your end?"  
"Slytherin common room's been barricaded by thorns so we can't get out and the windows have been cracked somehow which is making me worry about imminent flooding, How bad is it on your side?"  
Blaise sighed "We're holed up in the Astronomy Tower, from what we can see the castle is completely overrun, I think I saw a few messenger patroni get out but the vines seem to disrupt any magic they hit- Hang on I'm seeing something-"  
Blaise refocused the Omnioculars on the grounds slowing the playback "I can confirm, Blue Blur is circling the castle, he seems to be testing the vines defenses, they don't seem to react unless he casts spells though and only seems to go to the location it was cast, it can tentatively be concluded that the vines are drawn to cast magic."  
"If he saw it from Hogsmeade that must mean that the Army is on the way then" Roger sounded relieved and Blaise smirked.  
Blaise continued to report his observations watching as Maurice lit up his wand causing the vines to redirect from their pursuit of fleeing Hogwarts students from the greenhouses with Professor Sprout to focus on him until it lost interest "He's figured out the vines and he's using himself as bait so that some of the students can escape, smart"  
"Again, If he spotted it from Hogsmeade then everyone else did too, do you have any more two-way mirrors with anyone else in the castle?"  
Blaise didn't but Fred, who was on the other side of the balcony with his own set of Omnioculars, did.  
"That's a good idea boys, need some help?" spoke a rough voice from above the duo's heads causing Fred and Blaise to startle in surprise.

2nd March, Ravenclaw Tower Common Room  
Neville huffed as he dragged another cauldron down to the common room with the help of Susan. The 'potion' Neville was brewing in his dormitory had intended to be a pepper-up potion but had been left unattended before Neville had added a single ingredient leaving only the potion's base ingredient, pure water. Flitwick and many of the others had been incredulous at the idea that the formidable vines had such an easy counter, right up until they realized that conjured water did absolutely jack squat except make the vines chase the caster. Susan had then remembered the experimental piping their group had been working on for their 'houses' in the ravine, so here they were, playing firefighter to a parasite plant that spread like fire. Neville's own cursory examination of the dead vine had shown that it seemed to have been based on devils snare but had been tampered with to generate a hard outer shell made of what seemed to be nickel, a weak metal but against flesh in the form of razor-sharp vines absolutely lethal as well as immune to heat. The vine's movement left small cracks as the metal, fast forced to flex and reform after each movement allowing for water to seep in get caught in the enchantment and erode the metal and rot the plant thousands of times faster than nature intended. Flitwick had his own observations about the Kudzu mainly that even devils snare needed oxygen and given the kudzu's armors nature the plant would asphyxiate and die off in a week or so, Leading him to one grim conclusion "It's a weapon, or at least that's how it is being used, Hogwarts has been purposely targeted" Neville carefully adjusted the piping so the water wouldn't suddenly cut off "But why? What's so important about Hogwarts? Who would even target us? Why…" Neville trailed off as Crown Princess of the British Magical Conclaves, Princess Susan pointedly kept her silence on what potential target, read valuable potential hostage, lay within Hogwarts as she directed the other years into setting up a medical station in the corner of the room for those students 'vinefighting' their way down the hallway and returning with scratches and bruises. Neville and Flitwick exchanged grim looks and went back to help.  
In a quiet corner of the common room, 'The Living Jinx' Terry Boot as he'd been named derisively by the other students in the past hour sat twitchily, exiled to the corner and made to read a book on magical meditation, the terror of the situation plain in his near fizzing magic which had gone dangerously accidental with his fright nearly shattering the windows Flitwick had put so much effort into making sturdy enough to withstand everything from dragons to nuclear bombardment. Stereotypical Ravenclaw Terry was, his mind half hysterical with panic, lingered on the fact that even if he survived this and didn't die a gruesome plant induced death then he would still never, ever, live this down.

Hogsmeade Base Camp  
General Emmeline Vance had been in the old ministry meeting room discussing foreign policy with Amelia Bones and the Lieutenant Generals when the news came from seemingly all angles, Dawlish confined to desk duty had limped in escorted by a dozen worried-looking Sky Patrol Task Force soldiers, six patroni had phased through the walls and a worried yellow-haired child had been escorted to the meeting by the princesses tutor both having burst through the floo from Hogsmeade in a panic.  
The rest of the fast response teams and had arrived at the scene before her and immediately began surveying the besieged castle from above unable to get too close whilst one of the Hogwarts day students, Susan's friend by the look of the hair was literally running interference around the grounds refusing to leave until his friends in the castle were safe, which was admirable and brave but not something that an eleven-year-old should be doing. Not that anyone could stop the boy who seemed to take any suggestion to leave it to the adults by developing the same mysterious sudden deafness syndrome Albus Dumbledore had been so prone to develop in both convenient and inconvenient situations and running off before anyone could stop him.  
Then King Tiberius and Queen Amelia had arrived just as the blue-haired Hogwarts student she'd been observing then did something that defied belief.

Munich 1927  
It was sunny, when reading about this time period there had almost been a sense that the sun never shone on the bad guys, it was an utterly inane thought caused by distance from the subject issue, that the sun shouldn't shine in these dark times. It was one thing seeing it in a movie or reading a book about it however it was another thing entirely to live it, Mr. Keitch kept a firm grip on Agent Silvers shoulder no doubt to prevent him from getting them caught attempting to save the two romani people across the street being mercilessly harassed by youths wearing the infamous swatstika. Agent Silver needed no restraint however as he knew what was at stake but the hand on his shoulder was a nice reassurance nonetheless and at least helped him control the rage-induced trembling.  
"Photobericht Hoffmann?" asked another of the agents faintly, visibly forcing back bile eager to get this horrid bit of history well over with and drown the memory in high proof alcohol, probably not the only one on the team.  
"We take a left on the next street over" spoke Keitch tonelessly "Gameface's everyone, remember these monsters got their asses kicked so hard they're a morality lesson where we come from" That comment got a few weak grins.  
"I wish that the Hitler-Grindelwald Time Travel Exemption Act wasn't actually a thing" spoke an agent grumpily "Don't we all" muttered another with feeling. The act in question put into international law in both magical and non-magical worlds after forty-two successful assassinations had led to a progressively worsening literal apocalypse after each successive timeline alteration. That had been an interesting read Silver mused, especially the cliff notes in the warnings, of the thirtieth attempt that had somehow resulted in a gnome subspecies called Nerbs who had ruled the world via an artificial-intelligence hive mind present in their pocket calculators. As well as leaving scars in the space-time continuum which still existed today, that had been a confusing event for everyone involved, even by wizarding standards.  
This adventure was likely to be tame in comparison, though likely twice as nail-bitingly terrifying in its possible repercussions thought Silver with a wince.

2nd March 1992  
"Well, that didn't go as I intended" grumbled the leader of Paladin Team Sigma-Alpha 2 Squad, Sergeant Rufus Scrimgeour as he let the Hogwarts student bandage his head with his own medical supplies. "We have to leave soon" noted the Weasley grumpily as he looked down the outer tower at the upward creeping vines "it didn't notice us before but that little broom stunt of yours really caught its attention"  
Focused on tightening the splint and bandage on the Sergeant's leg, the same sergeant who looked as if he was in mild shock, Blaise just sighed "It's not like we knew it could fire its thorns like that"  
Fred wasn't letting it go "We have one broom between us since his broke and he landed on mine, yours can carry two people tops and with his broken leg he can't fly-OH CRAP!" the tower shook as a colossal vine half as thick as the tower shot out of the ground and collided the tower just below the top of the parapets sinking down almost sulkily as gravity and the lack of a spine did its work. "PULL ME UP!" at the unexpected holler the shaken Fred and Blaise rushed to the edge incredulous gazes meeting the sheepish gaze of Maurice Bluewind as he hung precariously to a loose stone over the void.

Hogsmeade Base Camp  
"I'm not the only one who saw that?" asked King Tiberius questioningly to thin air not the only one in the base camp momentary dumbfounded.  
Emmeline Vance on the other hand had seen some strange things since being placed in charge of a wizard army merely placed it at number three on her list of weird-things-that-keep-her-awake-at-night and moved on.  
Still, the strong urge to sarcastically reply that 'No your majesty we also saw the probably first-year Hogwarts student use the man-eating super vine as a springboard ramp to successfully catapult himself to the top of Hogwarts astronomy tower' did not win out because she was a professional.

Hufflepuff Common Room  
Daphne Greengrass was a gem as far as Bunnie was concerned even if she was Roger Malone's spy in Hufflepuff, looking into the two-way mirror showing a grinning Maurice holding a disgruntled-looking soldier in a princess carry with Fred and Blaise in the background ready to take off on a broom. Still, she wondered if he could pull this off taking care to suppress her accent as much as possible to make herself understood "Are you sure you can do this sugar?"  
Maurice nodded cockily the adrenaline from his previous jump clearly having not worn off yet and rolled his eyes. "Give me directions to the Hufflepuff Common rooms, you and Rufie here-" the professional soldiers scowl at the less than professional nickname was adorable "-break down the door so everyone can get out while I play distraction. Seriously I'm ready let's go do it" 'Rufie' gave a shallow gulp and closed his eyes as Maurice got ready to sprint, the mirror turning black. Bunnie felt only pity for the soldier, the zigzagging path from the top of the Astronomy tower not counting the alternative routes Maurice might have to take was bound to give him whiplash especially at Maurice's speed. "Good luck, Sugar"  
Bunnie hadn't been wrong, standing outside the Hufflepuff Common room several minutes later propped up on a barrel Rufus heaved into a corner quite green while an unrepentant Maurice grinned wordlessly. Zigzag was the mildest of possible descriptions of the path Maurice had taken, down to the fifth floor around the vines to the other set of moving stairs across the castle, there Maurice had made his way down the banisters grinding at speed causing sparks to fly from the enchanted stairway banister and his shoes own enchantments skidding off each other. Scrimgeour had been alternating between screeching or whimpering the entire way as Maurice zipping down to the basement level which had become a case of the walls having a wallpaper made of vines and being dangerous to touch.  
Rufus after gathering his composure marched over to the entrance and began to crudely hack at the door with a rune-covered trenching tool previously concealed in a hidden pocket and much-misdirected nerves.  
"What's going on out there?" came Bunnie's muffled voice through the wall. "This part of the wall isn't covered in vines" realized Maurice aloud pulling Rufus back before calling out as loud as he dared "Bunnie! If you can hear where this tapping noise is can you break the wall down?"  
"..." a thoughtful silence "Bunnie?" questioned Maurice as the silence lengthened.  
"Stand back ah am about ta demonstrate wha ma godfather calls an indestructible door fallacy!"  
Maurice yelped and rapidly back-pedaled further away with Rufus to avoid falling masonry as Bunnie violently and with an excessive amount of enthusiasm tore down the wall as if it had mortally offended her.  
"So much for the plan" Maurice snorted then promptly choked on the mortar dust in front of the smug witch.  
"Your ravens have infiltrated the mirror network, You'll need this" spoke a dry voice from behind Bunnie causing Bunnie to startle out of her post-destruction grin and move out of the entrance revealing another equally dusty student with dust streaked blonde hair and blue eyes. "Who?"  
"Daphne Greengrass" the first-year student warily stepped through the hole and brusquely introduced herself as the rest of the Hufflepuff's poured into the hallway out of the slowly collapsing common room not pausing to chatter. She pushed a mirror into unresisting hands where Maurice's expression shifted from confusion to delight at hearing a familiar voice from what he now realized was another two-way mirror "Maurice! I'm glad your okay" Maurice felt a knot of worry unravel at seeing Susan's face in the mirror "Where are you? I'll come to get you"  
Susan smiled in the mirror's reflection "I'm fine at the moment but the Slytherin's seem to be in trouble, they're trapped in their common room under the lake with a leaky window, can you play decoy and distract the Kudzu so they can move to another level?"  
Here Rufus interjected "The 'Kudzu' down at that level has completely blocked the corridors, It might be a better idea for them to use a Bubblehead Charm to breathe underwater and just escape through the window"  
Maurice glanced at the cracked Hufflepuff ceiling, envisioned the swaying Astronomy Tower and winced. "Not to mention the castle might just fall down completely with that much thrashing"  
"We should get everyone out that can still get out while the going's good" spoke the student with a pop cork gun slung like a hunting rifle over his shoulder.  
"There's a way out by the two corridors over" Maurice pointed over his shoulder with his thumb "It's a hole in the wall caused by the vines, it's a bit of a fall so I'd suggest taking a few mattresses"  
Susan and Neville exchanged confused looks "or just use feather lightening charms?" suggested Neville unsurely, it was Rufus who refuted the statement and informed him why it was a bad idea. "Inadvisable, the Kudzu is attracted to cast spells the more spells cast the more persistent the vines, they started to chase us after it was cast on me but lost interest after we got far away enough" The Ravenclaw side of the mirror went abruptly silent before loud swearing was heard in the background. Susan's expression went grim as she took a deep breath "We've been casting defensive spells at the vines since this started, if we stop now they'll overwhelm us before they lose interest, we're going to need a distraction"  
"I can be distracting, I can be very distracting" Maurice grinned tapping his foot on the ground with subconscious jitters.  
Neville came into view in the mirror "The Kudzu vines have a weakness we've been using to repel them, Clear natural water makes them rust into immobility"  
"In hindsight that seems obvious" mused Maurice thinking on the time his cousin had once tried to take a toy robot he got for Christmas into the bath with him and ended up with an afro from the electric discharge, that had been the high point of that year.  
"Conjured water doesn't work" Susan warned. "Well, Darn that makes things a lot harder" Bunnie pouted, a crash sounded on Susan's side of the mirror and Maurice straightened "Right, I'm coming over there right now" Susan nodded "I'll tell the Slytherin's the escape plan"

Seventh Floor Corridor  
Maurice stopped on the seventh floor after yet another detour as the vines infiltrated the rest of the castle, upon hearing loud indistinct yelling from a new crack in a wall that seemed to leak a dark mist, Maurice slowed to a stop and cautiously shouted back "Hello? Are you okay? Do you need help?"  
The yelling toned down the volume and gained an irritated inflection "I'm fine I can get myself out of this mess just fine all by myself!"  
Maurice snapped his fingers in realization "You're that kid that dunked me in the lake that one time!" Lee Jordan's somewhat scathing reply was drowned out by a loud roar on his side of the wall and what sounded like splashing "Knucklehead! You okay in there?"  
"AND WHY IS THERE A DRAGON IN A SCHOOL!" Lee's enraged yell was cut off by a yelp and a roar sending shivers down Maurice's spine "Knucklehead! I'm going to break down this wall and get you out okay?"  
There was no reply as Maurice cast an explosive Bombarda at the wall in a broad sweeping arc, unfortunately, it seemed as if Lee had the same idea though on a different scale.. and angle as the yell of "Bombarda Maxima!" attested to.  
Maurice only had a moment to glimpse what had happened before he jettisoned himself away from the wall in alarm and up onto a statue to avoid the tidal wave of water that came crashing through the hole.  
Maurice observed in silence for a solid minute before activating the two-way mirror to the Ravenclaw common room "Maurice? Why is the castle flooding?" came Susan's voice, he wordlessly turned the mirror to face the water spewing hole in the wall "...What?"  
"I'm on the seventh floor" Maurice added dryly for context.  
"...where's all the water even coming from?" Maurice shrugged not even caring that she couldn't see it.  
Gripping the edge of a conjured rope the completely sodden Lee emerged from the hole and made his way over to the statue and pulled himself up next to Maurice and the mirror as the deluge showed no sign of stopping and turned to the increasingly incredulous Bluenet and the Princess in the mirror "So... how was your day?"


	29. April 1992

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The nicknames are to clarify the obvious expy's. How exactly does one ambush a time-traveler? Elsewhen, Wandlore, Sinister happenings, fashion, Grindelwald has a Masterplan, and Miles discovers the steampunk genre.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

April 1st, 1992, Hogsmeade Village  
The memorial stood at the tail end of the street, a tall stone tablet with an engraving of Hogwarts School engulfed in steel thorns stood in Hogsmeade far away from where the Great Kudzu Attack had actually happened, sixteen students had died or were otherwise presumed dead in the attack their remains unidentifiable. Hogwarts School, visible in the distance from Hogsmeade had a veritable flurry of construction wizards and goblins bustling around the castle like bees. The castle itself had known better days, great gashes in the stonework, shattered windows and the great ravines scarred into the land stretching from the edge of the forest to the lake from the vines rising through the ground, had altered the once scenic view into a more rugged and savage terrain more in place with something found in the most isolated of wildernesses.  
Still, life went on in Hogsmeade village though busier than usual with troupes of artificers, enchanters, soldiers, volunteers, and Sky Patrollers making their way to and from the castle in an effort to restore the beleaguered castle.

Hogsmeade Village, Bluewind House  
At the Bluewind House, things had also changed though not as negatively, for their actions in the defense of the students Maurice, Susan and Lee as well as many others had been awarded the Order of Merlin First Class, though given the circumstances there had been no award ceremony. Maurice just thought the gold medal with its green ribbon was a bit gaudy, as well as the deaths of the students leaving a bitter taste in his mouth causing him to later just put it in a drawer in his study to forget about. Susan at the advice of Queen Amelia had had her medal displayed in the queen's office next to Susan's picture for foreign dignitaries to be impressed by. The entire government seemed to be buried under important work, the restoration of Hogwarts featuring heavily as the castle was an important national icon.  
With Hogwarts under reconstruction, the students had been offered homeschooling by tutors in assigned buildings funded by their refunded tuition fees, an easier feat since the Restriction on Underage Sorcery had been lifted with the Great Secrecy Crisis the Americans had discovered. Susan had started to become overwrought with the many morale-boosting royal appearances her position mandated so Maurice had offered his own home as a sanctuary away from the press, the King and Queen had leaped on this opportunity to simultaneously help their daughter, show sympathy for the common people and earn positive PR in this trying time, like sharks.  
So now Susan was tutored in Hogsmeade as opposed to her home or at Hogwarts. The crown princesses regular appearances near the castle allowing residents to feel safe again. The tutoring circle led by Hopkirk had expanded to include Lee Jordan as well as Fred's little brother Ronald Weasley who had bravely defended the hospital wing from creeping vines with his bow and arrows.  
Maurice stretched like a cat in the plush armchair as the fire roared away merrily in the grate warming his toes as he patiently took notes as Hopkirk drilled them again in their knowledge of magical theory for the upcoming exams whilst Susan fiddled with her transfigured snuffbox by adding more and more intricate designs to it. Miles sat at the kitchen island with Neville, Bunnie and new addition Virginia 'call me Ginny' Weasley. Another new addition to their group Lee Jordan or as he'd been permanently dubbed Knuckles by Miles after hearing Maurice repeatedly refer to him as Knucklehead, was doing sit-ups on the carpet with his feet hooked under Maurice's chair. Next to Maurice sat Ron who had gained a nickname of his own with convoluted reasoning behind it which could more or less be summed up as the initial comparison of him to Robin Hood which had snowballed when his younger sister sitting next to him not catching the reference to the altruistic outlaw had said that robins were red and not green like hedges in reference to his hair. Fred had leapt on that unwitting pun with a grin like a crocodile and had from that moment henceforth called Ron by his new nickname Rob Hedge. Ron or Rob as he was now known to the group had not initially responded but had in a startling turn about of a prank on his siblings, accepted the nickname wholeheartedly and then refused to be called anything else. Ginny had been invited to the Bluewind tutoring circle at Fred and George and Rob's request who all agreed that their beloved s'mothers behavior had gotten a bit unbearable at home for all involved after the hands of their status detecting magic clock for four of her children had simultaneously pointed to mortal peril with ominous chimes. Ginny had been taken to get her wand early and now blazed through the first year syllabus with the Wit-Sharpening potions the whole group now used, if there was one problem though that Susan found amusing it was that was Maurice hadn't yet noticed Ginny's burgeoning crush on him though she kept it remarkably well-controlled to blushing and stuttering when interacting with Maurice.  
So all in all the Bluewind House had become a hang-out spot and makeshift schoolhouse though very relaxed with lessons sometimes taking place in the nearby no longer forbidden forest alongside the construction of the village in The Ravine. Some days however when the weather was bad like today the group would floo over and begin lessons with the older students occasionally slipping the younger more advanced spellwork.  
"Do you all have nicknames?" Ginny Weasley asked Miles as she sipped at the hot chocolate, Miles shook his head "Nope, it just kinda happens, Parvati is Bunnie because she bounces back from everything, Neville sometimes goes by Boomer but it doesn't really stick that well, Lee is Knuckles because he's a Knucklehead" "Oi!" Protested the aforementioned Knuckles from the floor earning a chuckle from those listening.  
Miles continued "People are beginning to call Maurice Sonic now because of how fast he can move and he likes it so that's his nickname now" Indeed it appeared that one intrepid reporter had managed to snag some really good shots of the daring leap Maurice had made to the top of the Astronomy Tower and mentioned the sound of the sonic boom he'd made in the process. Maurice loved the name for reasons he couldn't quite remember and had flatly announced that that was his name now, unaffected by the chuckling from his friends as they realized he was being serious.  
"Blaise almost got called Espionage but that was a bit of a giveaway and a mouthful so he's been making an effort to get it shortened to Espio, it seems to be sticking" added Fred as he walked through the front door covered in dust and sneezing, cleaning as much dust off himself with a spell as possible before heading to the bathroom to clean up.  
"Everything going well at the castle?" Susan asked Fred sympathetically as the masonry dust did not look comfortable in the least "Constructions coming along, between learning new spells and casting spells all day I'm bushed"  
Plenty of people had volunteered to help in the reconstruction, former students with deep feelings of school pride over a certain age had been allowed to help in the less dangerous tasks suck as levitation rubble, filling in holes and general landscaping while more dangerous tasks like placing stone or fitting glass windows went to those good enough at the art of transfiguration to make a job of it.  
Sonic smirked not looking up from his notes "We'd help, but we're banned from the construction site because of our age and the Headmistress keeps giving Knuckles the stink eye for flooding the castle, so he's too terrified of her wrath to go anywhere near her" Knuckles threw a pillow at Sonic sparking much laughter.

April 2nd, W.A.N.D Department of Mysteries  
The Head Unspeakable stretched in place and yawned as he eyed the stack of files in his in-tray, it was a slow day but considering recent events the paperwork was likely about to double, He'd sent about half of his agents to investigate the site of the Hogwarts Incident on the order of the Queen who had relayed the order through General Vance, and they hadn't reported in yet. Owl had made some startling headway on the Malfoy Case and handed in his report a while back, a massive file indicating that Owl had really done his research. He had only skimmed the conclusion as there had been more pressing things going on at the time. From what Owl had found out the Wish-Magic Incident had explosively affected more than just the Department of Mysteries, in the days after the Wish-Magic Incident Lucius Malfoy and his wife had abruptly retreated from the public eye, furthermore, there were massive monetary transactions made from the Malfoy Vaults and a noted correlation with many ritual artifacts and rune carving equipment delivered from overseas, clearly whatever the Lucius Malfoy had been doing though had been interrupted by something powerful. Powerful in the manner that it had completely bypassed the wards and wrought havoc on the building and seemingly abducted the Malfoy family in the effort, too powerful to be a simple Lethifold that had snuck its way across borders by hiding in one of the deliveries.  
Efforts to track down the anonymous informant had been completely stymied by the soldiers in charge not taking the informant seriously and investigating anything, which had seen that soldier immediately demoted. The other question remaining now was what had happened to the missing Malfoy child, who according to forensics on the scene had not been taken with his parents and in fact been present in the ruins before vanishing shortly after it had been reported.  
Then there was the matter of the apparent cellar full of rotting corpses that the Lethifold had gorged itself on…  
The Head Unspeakable pinched the bridge of his nose to forestall the inevitable headache and penned a note to turn the file over to the new Investigations Department to chew on, he was so done with this.

Munich 1927, Back Alleys  
'This isn't right!' Agent Silver silently screamed to himself as he ducked down an alleyway. No sooner than he had entered the photo studio than the rest of the group waiting inconspicuously outside in various guises had been ambushed by what was unmistakably an entire wizard battalion, one that according to all reports should not be here at this point in the timeline.  
"Hello Lupin" came a familiar voice, pallid white skin, silvery-white hair with blue tips and eyes stained red like rubies from her descent into the darkest of magic, Delphini Riddle cut a most impressive figure for such a slight looking figure.  
Silver skidded to a halt in alarm "You!"  
Delphini laughed "Yes me! I suppose you never thought ahead about what you'd do when you caught me, having second thoughts ickle Lupin?"  
"Shut up" Silver snarled and raised a wand ready to knock her out "I'm taking you back to my time to fix the mess you've made of it!"  
"Oh Silver" Delphini tutted then cooed "If anything I improved it"  
Silver growled "Improved it? Improved it! Our world is gone Delphini! A scorched wasteland of fire and ash! Because of you!"  
Delphini tutted feeling amused when it made Silver snarl "It won't be like that when I fix it"  
"I've seen what you consider fixed, Delphini! I won't let you repeat it!"  
Delphini merely grinned and began shooting off spells so fast that he was hard-pressed to block only to discover that she hadn't been aiming for him in the first place if the screams of the two ICW agents who had caught up with him were anything to go on.  
The third agent was faster casting a smoke spell blinding the sight of Delphini and their other pursuers enough for the group to joint Disapparate away to safety.  
Part of the pursuit team broke off and walked to her, Operative Opossum approached Delphini briskly as she straightened from her crouch with a side smirk at the lingering oil stain on the cobblestone.  
Only instead of the praise, she expected Opossum snarled and gripped her by the collar pulling her close "You stupid girl! You don't even realize what you've done!"  
Opossum look has his face been visible through the concealment charm could have curdled milk.  
"I got rid of Lupin and two of his accomplices!" Delphini protested causing Operative Opossum to sneer "If only you'd been smart enough to not use a signature spell!"  
Delphini's heart dropped at the realization of her mistake "Oh"  
"Yes 'Oh' we knew they'd figure it out at some point, but handing out secrets like this is beyond the pale!"  
"Sorry?" Delphini squeaked Operative Opossum sighed in aggravation letting Delphini fall from his grasp to the floor in a heap "I expect better in the future Operative Metamorphia, are you able to get back to work?"  
Delphini forced herself to her feet her form beginning to shift, her height rose, her hair darkening losing all traces of blue and fading from white to pale blonde while her red eyes changed to a stunning sky blue. Delphini straightened out her pullover, dusted down her skirt, checked her silk stockings for signs of damage and repaired one of the heels of her high-heeled shoes which had gone crooked in the confrontation "How do I look?" Delphini asked teasingly swaying on the spot seductively, Operative Opossum just shuddered at the unsettling transformation and mannerisms "Just.. get back to work."  
Back at the photostudio and having stopped to pick up a bag of pastries as an excuse for her lateness Delphini in disguise walked into an interesting scene "Ah Miss Braun did you hear what happened a while ago?"  
Delphini shook her head demurely and spoke in perfect german with nary an accent "I have not, I was purchasing some pastries, perhaps you could regale me of the event whilst we eat?"  
Hoffman chortled and turned to the man on his right jovially "You can see why she is my favorite assistant, she brings me pastries! Ah where are my manners, allow me to introduce the man of vision himself Adolf Hitler, Adolf, This is my assistant Eva Braun"  
Delphini faked a blush at the older man's intense gaze "It's a pleasure"  
"The pleasure is all mine fair Fräulein"

April 4th, Wands by Gregorovitch, Carkitt Market  
Sonic forced himself not to shudder at the empty alley a street over and focused on the wand shop he was about to enter, noting Miles impatient look Sonic braced himself and entered the store.  
The bell tinkled as Sonic pushed the door open, cautious of receiving another jumpscare from another renowned wandmaker. Miles had no such apprehension and wandered in with curious eyes. Walking up to the welcome desk Sonic rang the bell on the table and signed into the visitor book which was an entirely different experience than from Ollivanders. A voice hollered from the back of the store "Be with you in a minute!" Sonic examined the store with an eagle eye, it was a lot cleaner than Ollivanders with a lot of clear or colored lacquer on the wood surfaces "I see you admiring the woodwork! We also do furnishings and occasionally furniture in addition to wands if you are interested?" With pure-white hair and a thick, bushy but well-trimmed beard contrasting his dark eyes and typical wizardwear Mykew Gregorovitch was a dignified old wizard but evidently much more straightforward than most of his kind.  
"I'm actually here for a second wand" Sonic illustrated by rolling up the sleeves showing the white vambraces with his holly and phoenix feather wand sheathed in the left one.  
"Oh? That's quite interesting" Gregorovitch rubbed his beard thoughtfully examining the bracer "What type is the wand? I assume that's an Ollivanders work?" Sonic nodded "Yes, holly wood and phoenix feather"  
Gregorovitch mummed thoughtfully "Hmm difficult to find a match for that combination, Though I should be able to do it, It is probably a good thing my assistants called me back in given the recent upswing in business, they've been almost driven to their knees in exhaustion. Still, there is a bit of poetry to a single person dual-wielding a wand each from rival wand makers"  
Gregorovitch gestured for the two to follow him towards the wand display. "Now unlike Ollivanders I do not perform that elaborate wand selection ceremony, I simply don't have the mage sight nor the patience for it."  
Miles piped up remembering something Sonic had told him "I thought the wand picked the wizard?"  
"True to an extent, are you okay being here?" Gregorovitch asked Miles who caught his meaning right away and just smiled. "I know I can't do magic like big brother, I don't mind I'm just curious"  
"Don't let that curiosity turn to jealousy and you'll be fine" spoke Gregorovitch gruffly as if remembering a bad experience.  
"I won't" Miles chirped.  
"Such a gem" Gregorovitch traded a look with Sonic who smirked.  
"Anyway here we narrow down the components of your wand then you get to test the stocked wands of that combination to find a match" Gregorovitch pulled out a large tray from a nearby shelf and set it on the table "first the wood, bring your magic to the surface as if casting a spell and pick one you like"  
The tray was full of labeled blocks of wood. Right away Sonic discarded the cherry rosewood and elm into the helpfully provided and labeled reject tray, next to be discarded was holly which got a strange look from Gregorovitch, next was willow which Sonic spared a conflicted look at before moving onto walnut which was discarded with a look of outright disgust. Hawthorn and blackthorn were definite maybes along with the english oak and red oak. Apple got a better reaction but Sonic continued to examine the blocks, cypress provoked a shiver of unease and was rejected immediately, whereas fir and reed earned a look of deep interest, maple and pear merely got a confused look and were fast discarded.  
Sonic re-examined the blocks he hadn't yet discarded tentatively discarding blackthorn and the red oak block at last choosing between hawthorn and english oak. "I don't think I can choose between these" Sonic admitted quietly, "Take your time or we could move onto wand cores if you like and come back to these?" Gregorovitch encouraged with understanding eyes. Sonic nodded unsure "Let us move onto cores"  
The next tray contained an array of feathers, horns and a few vials of heartstrings, Gregorovitch unnoticeably twitched when Sonic discarded the phoenix feather, unicorn hair and heartstrings wholesale and abruptly hyper-focused on the small golden feathers as well as a long blue whisker.  
"One of these..." Sonic spoke unable to take his eyes off the cores Gregorovitch moved the two cores out of sight very carefully and Sonic twitched coming back to himself when they were out of sight with a strange look on his face Gregorovitch spoke into the silence "I have seen that reaction once before and I have no intention of suffering a repeat performance. I shall go get all combinations with your chosen woods and cores and we can begin testing" Gregorovitch bustled out of the room while Sonic leaned heavily against the table with a worried looking Miles looking on. "What just happened?"  
Sonic looked at his hands as the tremors died down and tried to put what he'd just experienced into words "There were two paths in front of me and I wanted to walk both directions at once, but when I couldn't the path tried to tear me in two"  
Miles echoed his confusion "That doesn't make sense"  
"Divination rarely does" Came Gregorovitch's voice as he returned with two shoeboxes.  
"What? Your telling me I saw into the future?" asked Sonic skeptically, Gregorovitch shrugged "It does happen, even in someone with no such talent, magic is capricious like that." Gregorovitch set the boxes down "Now I'm obliged to warn you that the wands in this box have Golden Snidget feather cores and were harvested before the species were declared a protected species, More than one person have had their wands stolen just for the feathers, so if you do select one of them then I advise you not to spread the information around." Gregorovitch held their gaze seriously to make sure they got the point then moved to the other box "The wands in here are made of a less rare but equally hard to find sea serpent whiskers, all the wands here are made from either hawthorn or english oak, please test all the wands and pick whatever you feel fits you best."

April 5th, The Ravine  
Miles 'ohhed' as 'ahhed' as Sonic levitated two boulders slowly with a seeming gesture of his hand's dual casting from his new hawthorn and sea serpent whisker wand and his holly wood and phoenix feather wand. The two wands worked well together for all that the holly was a poor match unless casting directly from the vambrace, as Gregorovitch had remarked it was as if the holly wand had agoraphobia though remembering who he was working with he amended that statement to 'the wand having the survival instinct its wielder lacked' if its preference for staying in the hardy vambrace to avoid any danger of being broken by accident was any indicator.  
Lowering one of the boulders a slicing spell carved through the stone with a cloud of rock dust as Sonic amateurishly carved it into a crude table getting progressiveness more detailed as the sun moved across the sky.

April 6th, Hogwarts Castle  
Floating invisibly through the ruined castle Professor Binns smirked holding the black key engraved with thorns, it appeared that while Fronsac had lost the ward key to Sgùrr Mòr, one of the students had found it and proceeded to hide it in the famed cursed vaults though likely not by choice given that Binn's had been forced to fish it out of a dead dragon's guts. Evading the Unspeakable's in the process had been the most difficult thing he'd done by far these past few years. Now it was time to open the gate and help his master prepare for his glorious return! And what a glorious return it would be! Binns smiled darkly reminded of an old quote 'Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice' yet either or both would fulfill his desire for as far as he was concerned, both elements burned quite nicely even if in different ways.  
For now, though, there were some loose ends to be tied up, starting with a former professor and headmaster Basil Fronsac...

April 8th, Hogsmeade Village, Bluewind House  
"Now, now! No need to look so despondent! If anything this assignment shows that the royals still think highly of you" Madam Hopkirk gently admonished the sullen-looking Sergeant who sat in his wheelchair scowling mutinously down at the written orders he'd been given "...My soldiers won't stop laughing at me, no matter how many push-ups I make them do, demoted to the babysitter or am I the one being babysat?" the medically benched Sergeant admitted ruefully. Hopkirk ruthlessly suppressed a smile because it really was funny, But Rufus only had himself to blame for not taking the medical advice he'd been given and working himself into a fever from an untreated hairline fracture that turned into an infection. Still on the road to recovery and still driving himself to exhaustion the exasperated General Vance had assigned him as the Princesses study group's secondary tutor and bodyguard, forcing him off the heavy workloads Rufus would otherwise recklessly tackle.  
Hogwarts was still being rebuilt though there was talk of just finishing the year early, mainly because the Unspeakable's were forcibly plumbing the secrets of the castle with extreme prejudice because of the discovery of the legendary cursed vaults which had turned out to be less legendary and just plain extraordinarily lethal. The five-page newspaper spread on the oldest, largest and most vicious horntail dragon ever recorded to be used as a guard dragon in one of the vaults in a school had been chilling, to say the least. As observed by young Maurice or Sonic as he now went by the Kudzu attack had likely saved young Jordan's, similarly going by his own nickname, Knuckle's life, by cracking that wall in the vault otherwise he'd have never been found. Still, he doubted they'd find all of Hogwarts secrets, the founders had been extraordinarily tricky like that.

April 10th, Hogsmeade Village, Gladrags Wizardwear  
Sonic yawned despite himself, the scent of worked fabrics made him want to sleep but he was here for a reason, Susan had near begged him to come to the W.A.N.D Charity Gala with her next month at the newly refurbished former ministry building which now on the outside looked like a small-scale embassy and was for the first time open to the public and above ground. Natural since Sonic and Miles were attending the event with the Princess it meant they had to dress the part, hence clothes shopping at Gladrags Wizardwear. He'd made the poor decision of mentioning this in Hopkirks presence who had ushered the entire group of everyone attending into a crown funded clothes fitting, which basically amounted to Sonic, Miles, Knuckles, Rob, Fred and Neville playing the part of customizable dolls for Bunnie, Susan, Ginny and Hopkirk to have fun with.  
At the end of it, Sonic modeled a set of dark blue robes with a white dress shirt to exaggerated cheers and sat back to watch the others play clothes horse slash suffer, poor Miles looked ever so betrayed.  
Idling around while waiting for his friends to finish Sonic had picked up a few nice pair of warm white Acromantula silk gloves which he'd grown fond of for protecting his hands from the Kudzu thorns as well as allowing him to perform parkour over rough surfaces without losing a layer of skin by accident, though apparently, the price had gone up for some reason the shop assistant had mentioned irritably.  
No longer the center of attention if Knuckles indignant yelping and everyone's giggles or commiserating moans were any indicators, Sonic went to browse the rest of the shop's wares and its more quirky merchandise, immediately catching his attention was the description of the enchantment on a set of two large blue bracelets, noticing his attention on the objects one of the shop assistants came over. "Do you require any assistance?" Sonic nodded "How much is this?"  
The shop assistant examined the bracelets in question and his expression lit up "That's part of our Ability Enhancement Range created in 1906 by the Stevenson family, as long as you land after a jump with the sole of one foot flat on the ground you'll bounce higher than your initial leap, its quite expensive" Sonic winced as the price was listed, the sales assistant leaned close "In the absence of a suitable ramp the expanded range includes a few things a person capable of breaking the sound barrier might find useful if you'll come this way" The assistant hinted leading the bemused Sonic to another part of the shop.  
Reaching the display case the shop assistant handed Sonic a letter and bade him read it, Sonic expression fell into one of surprise, for as it turned out the part owners of the shop was the Greengrass family who had left a message that anything Sonic, eg. the boy who had helped save their daughters life from a collapsing common room, buys on his first visit to the shop was to be massively underpriced. So Sonic left the store with a Bounce-Bracelet set and a set of golden Antigrav-Buckles clipped to his shoes at a much more affordable price which in combination with the Bounce Bracelet allowed Sonic to use his momentum to ricochet off walls and jump to incredible heights all without the aid of killer kudzu and the new ability to land from any height without hurting his legs. It opened up so many possibilities and paths! He'd have to set a camera up to catch his friend's expressions when he used it because their expressions were bound to be amusing.

April 10th, Unknown location  
The fire burned happily in the grate flames leaving trails of flickering light to dance around the darkened room, Gellert Grindelwald swirled the glass of scotch around watching the rich amber liquid catch the fire's light from his armchair. At the desk Operative Opossum finished his report and laid it on his desk for later perusal.  
"Do you know why I named you Opossum?" Grindelwald asked out of the blue, breaking the quiet silence between them.  
Opossum chuckled "I have some faint idea, Sir"  
Amber liquid tinkled "Perhaps more foolish sentimentality on my part, Names have meaning after all. Do you know why Operative Metamorphia originally named Operative Augurey was named so?"  
Opossum paused brow crinkling in thought as Grindelwald chuckled "There is not a single operative in my army named after a magical creature and even then we all have animal code names so.. why her?"  
"I had assumed you had plans for her sir. As the daughter of the former dark lord I assume she's quite a valuable resource?"  
Grindelwald snorted in amusement "And in our many discussions of the future I plan to create have we ever discussed the role of magical creatures?"  
Opossum paused thinking back realization leaving him quite bewildered "No, Sir... now that I think of it... we have not."  
Grindelwald sipped at his scotch and sighed looking into the fire "In the Second World War a couple on foot walked across Germany into Switzerland having previously jumped out of a train taking them from one concentration camp to another. They took with them their young daughter and passed her off to the border guard with a written diary and almost immediately dropped dead of exhaustion on the spot."  
"Sir?"  
"Several years ago a non-magical woman lifted a one-tonne car to save the life of an infant trapped beneath it. Magical humans also have many such records of pulling off such fantastic magical feats in defense of another"  
Grindelwald paused "Now, Combing through our history, how many of these feats have been attributed to magical creatures? Would you like to guess?"  
Not giving Opossum time to respond, Grindelwald answered himself "None, In thousands of years, not a single such action has been recorded. Even non-magical animals have their moments but magical creatures?"  
Grindelwald scoffed "You think I designate Delphini as a valuable resource? No, it's quite the opposite I named her such because she is utterly disposable and at most an outside contractor even if she does not recognize it as such."  
Opossum gaped as Grindelwald continued pouring another glass of scotch and handing it to Opossum and refilling his own in the process with a sharp smile.  
"She'll play at being a Dark Lady and dream of the subjugation of all magical kind, but ultimately to those of us who play a bigger game? The rain she brings bestirs not a ripple in the pond."  
"Is that why you gave her that assignment?" asked Opossum, mouth suddenly dry.  
"To keep the squalling little child out of the way yes. She will do her job and siphon the needed resources to hidden locations that were never discovered as planned, the nazi's collective plundered wealth should prove useful" Grindelwald gazed into the flickering fire. "and when the noose tightens and she awaits a rescue which will never come?"  
Grindelwald tilted his head to the side "Well that should save us the trouble of putting down a rabid animal don't you think?"  
Opossum raised his glass in a toast amazed again by the leader he had chosen to follow and raised a glass. "Out with the old, in with the new?"  
Grindelwald chuckled and toasted in agreement with a tinkle of glass "I could not have put it better myself"

April 20th, Hogsmeade Village, Bluewind House  
Scowling at the circuit board Miles pushed it away with a huff and looked over to his brother who had apparently fallen asleep in the poofy armchair, retrieving a warm woolly blanket from the cupboard he briefly looked down at the open book splayed in the exhausted student's lap and tilted his head in curiosity at the strange picture on the cover, he'd never seen a book like this before. Glancing back at the circuit board Miles shrugged it wasn't like he was going to make any progress tonight and that book did look interesting… quietly closing the book and tucking in under his arm he covering Sonic with the woolly blanket and crept quietly upstairs to his bedroom. Safe at last with his borrowed prize lying on the bed Miles opened the book and began to read aloud but quietly "First iteration, The Angel of Goliad..."


	30. May 1992

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

May 1st 1992, Wizarding Army of National Defence Headquarters, London  
Quietly purchased from the Historic Royal Palaces charity foundation with the caveat of maintaining the place unaltered, The Banqueting House, Whitehall was the first public wizarding location based above ground in a heavily populated area. Privately renamed by the wizards as W.A.N.D Headquarters and remodeled on the inside, the building was massive, especially with the help of expansion charms as well as the levels of the old ministry which had been carefully connected to the building. To the non-magical eye, the place had simply become another repurposed privately owned building but to the magical eye, the building represented the public face of the new magical government. No longer known as the Ministry of Magic the new seat of the magical government was unrecognizable especially given that all the below-ground offices were now restricted to the people who worked there and no longer traversable to the general public. Today though was the grand opening with The W.A.N.D Charity Gala, this would be the first time since the Diagon Alley attack that the beating heart of the much-changed British magical government would be open, though for a limited time, to the public. Still despite this explanation from multiple angles, Sonic could not fathom how the magical's had managed to buy the place from the non-magicals. Firstly on account of money and secondly because of its actual location and history. He himself had faced his own problems with earning money in the wizarding world as the economy of a society where you could conjure half of the basic necessities was more than a bit unbalanced and very unfair towards newcomers which made the discovery of the Potter Vaults a pleasant and welcome surprise. Unfortunately, he couldn't access the main vault if only because the goblins were still digging it out from the invasion which had apparently collapsed more than a few of the Gringott's underground passageways, the trust vault had, however, was on the sixth basement level down, one level above the collapse so that was lucky.  
So on that account, Sonic wondered how the magical's had managed to buy such an important place with money that to the non-magical eye came seeming out of thin air, a conspiracy theory that would undoubtedly bring non-magical investigators and their inland revenue running.  
Secondly, it was an open secret in the non-magical world that Whitehall was the home of most of the United Kingdom's really important government infrastructure with most of the jobs not being the kind of stuff publicly admitted to. Sonic imagined that W.A.N.D had made more than one bargain with the non-magical government, a thought he only once idly shared with Susan who confirmed it by getting very twitchy and unsubtly changing the subject to clothes. Though come to think of it the second thing might actually be the answer to the first, by making everyone think it was a secret government scheme. This made sense as the first plausible explanations non-magicals came up with, in the face of something odd usually consisted of 'government', 'terrorists', 'spies', 'aliens', 'god' then the assumption that 'a wizard did it' and usually in that order.  
Ignoring that the new building was nice Sonic thought, forty shining gold chandeliers with candles glowing with incandescent spectral fire glinted far above his head illuminated the room. A silent but magnificent lightning storm danced in the new ceiling in place of the old paintings with all manner of flying creature darting in and out of the storm. The building had clearly been massively expanded on the inside with spells with the first floor being half the size of a football field. Long tables for all the guests were arranged at the edges of the room, for now carrying general finger food though that would change later when the speeches and announcements began.  
Next to Sonic, Miles subtly gulped down a few sauce-covered prawns with no grace at all when no one looked.  
"Bored already?" Sonic froze unnoticeably then relaxed turning his gaze to Roger Malone "I can manage fine. You?"  
Roger tugged his ascot to loosen it "Admittedly I am a bit bored, it is hard to strike up a conversation with an adult decade's my senior and be taken seriously"  
Sonic nodded sympathetically suddenly grateful that no one was forcing him to do likewise though he had been approached a few times mostly by the goblins attending the gala about his heroics at Hogwarts. It was nice to see another person from school in one piece, as the school had been evacuated in a hurry and letters and news announcements only said so much.  
"Ready for the exams next month?" Roger grinned and nodded looking justifiably pleased having been one of the better students in Slytherin "Quite, though I do wonder how they intend to teach us herbology next year?"  
Sonic shrugged recognizing the probe for information and saw no harm in sharing "Everyone's getting a pass, though the seventh years have been granted permission to attend an eighth year if they're interested in it"  
Roger nodded thoughtfully "Are you interested?"  
"In herbology? Not as a career but there is a certain 'charm' to it"  
Catching sight of Sonic's shameless grin at the massively overused pun Roger raised an eyebrow "That was truly terrible" both boys were silent for a moment then laughed. Behind them unnoticed, Miles finished the prawn platter.  
Minutes later a clatter from the raised red dais drew the eyes of everyone in the room signaling that it was time to be seated.  
As friends of the princess Sonic and Miles merited seats next to her at the table with Bunnie and Rob while Neville sat further down next to his grandmother who looked remarkably unhappy at being sat next to Alastor Moody evident in their heated conversation that had just finished.  
Queen Amelia Bones was a vision in her golden dress sparkling tiara framed by her tightly bound hair, ascending the podium none could take their eyes off her as the head of state began to speak, Magical Britain could not even begin to understand the scale of the fire that was about to be unleashed with one speech.  
"Welcome all to the grand opening of the United Kingdoms Magical Government, Headquarters to the famed The Wizarding Army of National Defense, For the past month's chaos has reigned, Magical fluctuations, attacks on our populace both in our city centers and the shining bastion of light that is the premier institution of magical learning in the world."  
Behind the queen images began to form out of silver mist hovering above a silver bowl attended to by two soldiers illustrated the mentioned events, Susan glanced worriedly at Sonic and Bunnie their expressions had gone remarkably plastic they watched the burning of Diagon Alley and the Hogwarts Acromantula attack replay in the memory.  
"Some would say this is a result of changing too rapidly, that we are casting away valued traditions and ideals that made this nation great."  
The images changed, showcasing the old ministry, the vile statue of Magical Brethren that represented only bigotry and of Cornelius Fudge, the last Minister Of Magic before its reformation into an absolute monarchy, being led out in disgrace.  
"Evidence however points to these attacks upon our people merely as signs of a long-festering illness in our society that only now is coming to light, not as a sudden expression of violence. Too long we as a society have been quietly simmering in a state of discontent masked as normality as injustice after injustice was perpetrated upon the populace under the aegis of the old government, those content in living off the past glories of far grander ages long consigned to history books!"  
Papers shimmered across the screen sentences like 'Muggleborns and Beasts need not apply', 'Magic is Might' highlighted in glowing red as they fell.  
A hush fell briefly and Queen Amelia Bones continued the image of determination "Today we begin to rectify this injustice, shaking off centuries of malaise, we are awakened as a nation of one people, all species, under a single banner, Magicals!  
Our non-magical cousins have advanced in different ways as they take a path wholly separate from ours yet no less great,-" More images appeared determined to crush delusions of magical superiority into dust in all who watched, a sped-up construction of a massive city skyline, fighter jets soaring at impossible heights and images of the earth from space with a happily posing astronaut "-It is time we magical kind of Britain and associated magical territories remember that, of all the world we alone are still the empire on which the sun never sets!  
In this new age will reclaim our dignity, our power and most importantly, our duty to all those under the auspices of the British Magical Empire and not just a small community!  
We have changed, we have advanced, we are going to continue to advance and we are here, finally to stay."  
The applause when it started quickly ascended to a fever pitch roar, everyone swept up in the emotion of the queen's speech. Even as Sonic stood on his feet and clapped with the rest of the crowd he wondered what the rest of the wizarding world, no doubt listening over the Wireless at this very moment, was thinking.

Los Alamos, New Mexico 1946  
Not for the first time, Dumbledore lamented his weak chin, the necessity of shaving his waist-long white beard into a goatee had left him feeling horribly exposed, the de-aging potion that had been forced on him had rid him of most of his wrinkles and even regain his auburn hair coloring had certainly helped his backache though. Another thing that frustrated him was the poor excuse of a suit, He hated the bland colorless thing incandescently with every fiber of his being. Still, sat in the corner bar Albus did his job seemingly stewing over his drink giving off an air of unapproachability even as he dived into the minds of the off-duty scientists from the relatively nearby laboratory to the south of the town. Mentally nudging one of the scientists he managed to get him to speak to his fellow about his work, Earning a scolding shush from the co-worker. 'Jackpot' Albus mentally crowed as the more relevant thoughts poured by him pushed to the forefront of the scientist's mind 'Wait what?' Albus dived deeper into the scientist's mind 'Project Ultimate Peacekeeper?' as he read himself in on the details of the project Albus placed his now shaking hands flat on the newspaper he'd been pretending to read hiding them from curious eyes. Feeling now more than ever as if he were at the edge of a precipice Albus unflinchingly dove down the rabbit hole.

May 5th, 1992, Forbidden Forest, The Ravine  
Sonic carefully edged the oak log into place, the large gouged notches allowing him to slot the logs together like a jigsaw puzzle. As he'd discovered, if he wiggled his fingers as if holding the item when he was levitating it he could control what he was levitating as tactilely as if playing with toy blocks. The log cabin was coming along nicely though he'd have to reread the book when he was ready to do the roof, he'd had some ideas about transfiguration and moulds that he'd have to run by Professor Lucretia before he tried anything though but if he did it right then it would be a nice log cabin for when he wanted a home away from home.  
Further away from the incomplete log cabin on a stretch of cleared earth Knuckles was teaching Neville how to throw a punch with Bunnie supervising.  
Knuckles had been amazed upon being shown The Ravine by Sonic as the time they'd known each other in the wake of the Kudzu Attack had resulted in a firm if slightly antagonistic friendship.  
Similarly with Rob while their friendship wasn't as close as the others they'd bonded over their shared outgoing hobbies, similarly shared trauma and surprisingly enough unusual hair colors.  
Rob had been as described by Fred as a bit 'off-kilter' after the attack and as Fred had ashamedly admitted possibly quite a time before that, initially Sonic had thought this was because he'd been attacked, knocked unconscious and then attacked again but then the whole sorry story came out.  
Rob had been gazing dispassionately at the water of the black lake and the castle in the distance as he reiterated the events of the term to Sonic, of the backfiring prank he'd played and then the fallout, a year-long campaign of terror and humiliation by his own dorm mates, culminating in his suspected ambush.  
"It's only now that Crabbe's dead, Goyle's gone and Nott's transfer to Durmstrang that I can really talk about it" Rob had admitted to Sonic quietly "I just want to put everything behind me now" Sonic had then offered his own opinion keeping the sympathy from his voice as he expected Rob would respond poorly to it. "The way I see it you didn't know any better and they really crossed the line in doing that, are you going to be okay next term?"  
Rob thought on his last remaining dorm mate Michael Corner who had escaped the attack relatively unharmed though traumatized by the loss of his dorm mates apart from Rob, a boy who he had had a hand in tormenting, between the guilt of bullying and the trauma Corner was now being homeschooled and was thus unlikely to return to Hogwarts.  
"I think I'll be okay" The sheer relief on his face at no longer being, for lack of better terms, tortured, tugged at Sonics heartstrings so with the agreement of the others he had invited him to The Ravine one day. The way his expression had lit up in awe as they descended into the hidden clearing had been gratifying.  
It had become not uncommon for Rob to traipse into camp every other week and hang out sometimes going fishing in the river together.  
Speaking of the river Miles was down there again with a large amount of copper piping, a box of mismatched construction material and seemed to be soldering something with a blowtorch, ordinarily Sonic would be more worried about handing a young child a blowtorch but Miles was a responsible kid and knew what he was doing.  
Hopkirk was not there with them today reason being that this was a day off for all the hard work they'd been doing. With Hogwarts still closed their End of Year Exams were being held by the ICWs Educational Office at W.A.N.D Headquarters in June and Hopkirk had judged the group ready to take the examination by storm.  
Susan was going to have the easiest time of it considering she had already done all the theory for every year and only had the magic to go. The first-year exam for herbology had been completely scrapped as the Kudzu had torn its way through the greenhouse and wreaked pretty much everything that was going to be evaluated, though that hadn't spoiled Sonics interest having planted a great many cutting of useful healing plants near the waterfall before the event even happened.

May 10th, The Rookery, Ottery St Catchpole, Devon  
Luna and Xeno peered at the person curled up peacefully under the blankets then exchanged looks "Do you think we used too much-"  
"-Nargle Dust? Possibly"  
"Regardless he should wake up soon..." speculated Molly Weasley looming behind the duo, having been summoned to her neighbor's house by a loud explosion followed by an ominous trail of smoke drifting from the Lovegood house, tutted she had shooed the two out of the guest room "Really! It's a good thing you freed the child from that horrible trap but did you perhaps consider asking for help beforehand?"  
Lingering at the open door as Molly scanned the child with a diagnostic charm, Xeno protested his innocence "It worked though!"  
"And just where did you even get that ritual from?" asked Molly pointedly eyebrow arched as Xeno's expression shifted from exultant to slightly shifty.  
"Merwyn the Malicious's Manual of Malicious Machinations for the Malcontent?" Xeno offered weakly suddenly realizing Molly Weasley might start to yell at him without the benefit of her famous howlers.  
Molly paused in her ministrations going over the book's title in her head, resisting the urge to scream with the sleeping child in earshot and actually looked at Xeno "Have you ever considered that taking advice from someone called 'the Malicious' might not be a good idea?"  
"It was perfectly fine" Xeno defended weakly flinching under her glare "I even managed to substitute much less heinous ingredients and it worked!"  
"Barely" spoke Molly pointedly fingering the unnatural bright red streaks in the boy's otherwise long jet black hair.  
"So pretty" cooed Luna sitting next to the bed.  
"You won't tell anyone about this will you?" Pleaded Xeno.  
"I really should" Molly admitted grudgingly.  
Xeno slowly grinned sensing victory in Molly's hesitance "But you won't? Not even your husband?"  
Molly sighed in a suffering tone remembering Xeno's wife asking her the same thing in the exact same tone more than once upon a time "You, Xeno, are impossible, Yes, I'll keep your secret."  
"Hhmmmn?" Both turned to the bed where the now awake boy found himself in the cuddling embrace of a cooing Luna Lovegood, blank ruby eyes full of confusion as she carded his hair softly with her hand.  
"Isn't he ever so cute! I shall call him Shadow and he shall be mine and he shall be my Shadow!" Molly leveled Xeno with such a flat look that he flinched.

May 19th, Hogsmeade Village, Bluewind House  
It was dark both inside and out as Miles rummaged through the back of the basement's storage closet for the potion he had been attempting to brew for the past few months. His heart started to sink as he saw the still black liquid in the vial, before with a great rumble nearby signifying a lightning strike the potion flashed and the vial turned blood red. Miles grinned even as he unstoppered the concoction and quaffed it down glorifying in his success as he felt the described sensation of fiery pain and an intense double heartbeat as the image he sought slowly began forming in his head. There was no warning as the heavy metal shelving above him, stacked to the brim with vials of Wit-Sharpening potion, rattled by the weather, came crashing down on top of him and everything went dark.

Far beneath Hogwarts  
Deep in the bowels of Hogwarts something stirred and creaked, large silvery vines were illuminated with white light as they crept past the glow bugs nibbling at the remaining flesh in the rodent ossuary. Bones were sent rattling out of the way followed by clouds of disturbed glow bugs. The vines slithered on ignorant of the yellow eyes creeping silently ever closer.

May 20th, Third Floor, St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, London  
"There, all fixed up!" chirped Healer Stout as the last of the bandages over the scratches were healed with a splash of Essence of Dittany. Miles flexed his hand carefully as the watching Sonic sighed in relief. "Now the results should be in soon but I don't expect there to be any serious after-effects"  
Sonic continued to eye Miles worriedly even though the bandages had been removed yesterday still on edge from finding the unconscious Miles under the rubble of the shelving unit eerily unmoving.  
The Healer tutted as she examined the results which had arrived when Sonic was lost in thought "As I expected, I'm afraid to have to advise young Miles to never take another Wit-sharpening Potion ever again, It seems the potion itself has seeped into your bloodstream, because of that the effects have become permanent." Miles and Sonic blinked in surprise with Miles tentatively asking the question more for Sonics benefit than his own as he could already feel the truth in its effects "So this is the new normal for me then?"  
"Yes" Stout confirmed checking over the results and writing something, Miles turned to Sonic knowing that he had to come clean about the other thing that he had been doing and not sure how he'd react.  
"Sonic will you help me with the project I'm working on? It's why I was in the basement" Sonic paused eyeing Miles critically something in the tone of his question raising the hairs on the back of his neck. "Why were you down there anyway?"  
Miles looked abashed and fidgeted with a bit of his jumper "Promise not to be mad?"  
Sonic raised an eyebrow questioningly and promised no such thing "Miles…"  
Miles shrugged to himself and made an expression of great concentrating. Neither Sonic nor the healer were expecting what happened next as Miles vanished from view and in his place, for a tiny beige fox kit to materialize with a happy mewling yip bark, even less expected was its twin fox tails happily waving behind him in the air.

May 21st, Secret Underground Research Laboratory  
The Head Unspeakable stared at the gargantuan golden ring levitating in what some filthy-minded Unspeakable of yore had unfortunately named 'The Love Chamber'.  
Once containing a single cauldron full of Amortia the most powerful potion in the world, the cauldron had been upturned and its contents as well as the actual cauldron flash vaporized by the cascading energy from the giant floating golden ring appearance. From what his scans told him the ring functioned as something like a portal and 'the monkey test' had revealed a habitable atmosphere on the other side from the vague images from his Legilimency scan of the monkey showed. Sure they'd be studying it until they were sure it was safe but then? The Head Unspeakable was looking forward to a new adventure away from the paperwork.

May 23rd, Hogsmeade Village, Bluewind House  
Miles huffed as he added another line to the blueprint on his desk and gazed out of the window wistfully.  
Grounded.  
Sonic had initially taken Miles foray into becoming the first squib animagus in recorded history well, right up until the healer had lost her temper and lit into the duo and made Sonic understand precisely what Miles had been risking, not even accounting for how he had somehow modified the potion to work without the spell aspect of the procedure, something that had never ever been done before.  
Sonic had then made Miles register his form with St Mungos who would register it with the government and proceeded to put Miles under house arrest. This was the first argument the two had ever had since they'd become brothers, neither liked it.  
In the basement of the Bluewind House, Sonic continued to sweep up the glass into a large old pewter cauldron, where it would eventually be taken to the ravine to become fodder for glass making lessons. Gazing at the space where the old shelving unit had been Sonic sighed, He had almost lost his little brother to an accident if not to the shelving then a potion gone wrong, it was a very disconcerting feeling. He needed to talk with someone and he knew just where to start.

Devon, Longbottom Hall  
Neville Longbottom did not jump when his fireplace flared green though he made a note to tell Sonic that the green fire clashed with his blue hair awfully.  
"Sonic? How are you? You can come over if you want" Sonics worried look lessened "Thanks I'll be over in a minute" Sonic withdrew his head from the fire and stepped through with a shiver "I hate floo" he announced in an aggravated tone shaking out his near mane of blue hair.  
"At least you stopped skidding out the fire and landing in a heap" Neville pointed out knowing from his expression that Sonic had something he needed to say and letting him work his way to it with small talk.  
"There is that" Sonic reluctantly conceded glaring once at the fireplace, then he caught sight of Neville's project on his desk. "Is that the armor we got you for Solstice?" Sonic asked looking at the individual pieces, Neville brightened "Yep, I've been working on my enchanting, someday I'll have a working suit of power armor" Sonic smirked in amusement at the eagerness in Neville's expression before his expression sobered. "Miles nearly died recently" Neville's expression became alarmed before Sonic swiftly explained, "He's alright though, a shelving unit collapsed on him in during a thunderstorm but the sight of him like that.. it really scared me."  
Then Neville asked the question Sonic had spent most of his life expertly tap-dancing around "What did your parents say?"  
Sonic shifted in place uncomfortably "Can.. can you keep a secret?"  
Neville's curiosity was piqued "Sonic you're one of the only friends I have, I trust you"  
Sonic looked around shiftily and Neville noticed his gaze lingering pointedly on the moving portraits that were unsubtly trying to listen in, portraits that both boys were aware of did not answer to Neville but his strict grandmother. Meeting Sonic's gaze levelly Neville spoke lightly eyes briefly but pointedly skirting over the eavesdroppers "Why don't we have this conversation in the greenhouse?" Neville noticed Sonics discomfort ease and was confident he's made the right decision.  
Minutes later in the Greenhouse Sonic's uncomfortable expression had returned as Neville lost his composure and blatantly gaped at him "No guardian? None?" Sonic nodded tiredly rolling his shoulders with a gusty sigh "I didn't think it was a big deal but then the healer brought it up in conversation and I barely managed to convince her that we had the accident at a friends house doing something stupid"  
Neville took a steadying breath as his head was swimming at the implications "Ignoring how this shouldn't be possible for the moment, don't you want guardians?"  
Sonic met Neville's gaze speaking seriously "Neville. The people I used to stay with couldn't care less what happens to me, I left for Hogwarts without telling them and they haven't reported me missing yet. That alone should tell you how much they don't care. And Miles? I don't know what happened to his parents but I rescued him from a locked cell in a leaky dungeon full of horrors."  
Sonic shook his head violently at the memory and Neville wondered if he'd ever be brave enough to ask about said horrors "Listen Neville, Miles and I? We've been fine together, we're both fiercely independent and we own our little house in Hogsmeade outright and have enough funds to last for a long time if used responsibly"  
An uncomfortable silence settled between the two Neville looked away from Sonic and back at his own house as he spoke "Did I ever tell you about my Uncle Algie?" Sonic shook his head "No? What about him?" Neville teased his shirt nervously wondering if he was really going to go ahead with this or not before deciding to be brave once and just spit it out "Before, When blood purity was important, everyone thought I was a squib." Neville saw the incomprehension in Sonic's eyes about why something like that would matter and felt a surge of fondness for the bluenet, Neville explained "In magic families that's considered disgraceful so he decided to... scare the magic out of me" Neville looked up, Sonic's expression was steadily going colder as the seconds passed and his went voice flat uttering a single word "How?"  
Nevile idly teased a nearby snapping Fanged Geranium with a stick "He once pushed me off the Blackpool Pier, I got dragged under by the current and nearly drowned, I'm... not sure what he expected to happen with that, even with magic" Neville laughed bitterly, Sonic growled quietly as Neville continued speaking, "Another time he dangled me out of the upstairs window and dropped me, on purpose I think" A moment of silence ensued as Neville let that bombshell sink in before continuing "The worst thing I think was when my family cried because I saved myself with magic, instead of, you know? Because I lived"  
Neville met Sonics gaze evenly "I'll keep your secret but my advice? If neither of you can stomach a guardian? Why not try being what a guardian is supposed to be, go back home and be the kind of guardian we both wish we had"  
Sonic smiled before it faded looking back at Longbottom Hall now with open disdain knowing the actions or inactions of the others who lived there "What about you?"  
Neville frowned uncomfortably "I'll be fine, I have magic so... apparently... I matter now" Neville shrugged off Sonics concern, still scowling at the house Sonic turned to Neville "You're welcome to come over to our house whenever you want, no invitation or warning needed"  
Sonic turned to go home when Neville stopped him "How many other people know about this?" Sonic laughed openly and honestly "To be honest you're actually the first, I probably won't tell anyone else until Miles is at least eighteen" Neville felt immensely touched at being trusted with such an important secret.

Hogsmeade Village, Bluewind House  
A knock on his bedroom door drew Miles attention away from the schematic and he pointedly turned away as his brother entered with a tray of food.  
"I'm sorry I yelled at you" Sonic said softly, there was no response as Miles continued taking notes ignoring his brother. Sonic sighed and entered the room placing the tray next to the schematic on the table and moving to sit next to Miles. Miles didn't pull away so Sonic counted that as progress and began speaking lowly, "I'm not used to having someone to care about, and before this year I've never had an example of being cared about either so I'm pretty much making this up as I go along." They sat quietly as in peaceable silence with Sonic looking on quietly at the schematic Miles was working on. "That's… Possibly a rocket?" Sonic hazarded a guess Miles finally began to speak. "It's a self-propelled bodyboard I've been working on... I figured we could go to the ravine and play, when I'm not grounded" Miles corrected voice teary him sinking into his brother's side as Sonic hugged him shushing him as he cried.

May 26th, Unplottable Heavily Warded Location  
Bunnie yelped as she ducked under a barrage of spellfire, an alarm rung signaling the end of the session causing the girl to examine herself before swearing the air blue as the spectral green flames danced between her prosthetic's joints, rendering the prosthetic more and more inoperable as the seconds passed. Bunnie stared incredulously at her grinning godfather who held several screws and bolts that had seconds ago been in her leg "...You weaponized floo powder?" Moody grinned ghoulishly "Great isn't it! And if it worked on you it should certainly work on those automatons I told you about" Bunnie paused thoughtfully then nodded but still made her objections clear "Could you have tested it on someone else instead of me first?" Moody grinned madly "I already did, I just wanted to see how you'd react" Bunnie lunged forward with a punch that Moody near danced out of reach of with an amused cackle "Going to have to try harder than that little hoppy!"  
Bunnie growled at the nickname but knew better than to sling a spell his way, wary of starting something she couldn't finish. "Anyway, what's this I hear about you being friends with the Longbottom heir?"  
Bunnie raised an eyebrow as Moody fiddled around with the weaponized floo powder returning the nuts and bolts to her limb "Do you disapprove?"  
Moody snorted "Naw, the kids good people. Anyway, his granny, that senile old hag of a vulture Augusta asked me to teach him to defend himself, I wasn't going to accept but he's your friend so I figured you'd want in on that?"  
Bunnie chuckled weakly "I'd love ta, if only ta stop ya from traumatizing Nev."


	31. June 1992 - End of Hogwarts Year One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spoiler time! This universe is merely one part of the massively interconnected multiverse written to run alongside: Chaos Reality Runner, A World So Bright, ExtraSolar Flare, Rise in Rebellion, Days Bygone and maybe possibly more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling.

June 1st 1992, The Perpendicular Zone  
A person of high social standing sat at a desk as a group of uniform-clad soldiers filed into the office neatly arraying themselves for a debriefing. A perfectly ordinary scene unless you count the fact that the person behind the desk in question was a heavily bandaged anthropomorphic blue hedgehog and the people in front of him were likewise similar anthropomorphic animals such as a green crocodile, a pink chameleon, a female redhead chipmunk, and a red armadillo all clad in futuristic next-generation grey power armor. On top of that the office.. no the entire world seemed to be listing at a not quite a perfect angle of 90 degrees. Still in light of this odd scene time went on.  
"We are still categorizing the damage caused by the event in question" The blue hedgehog known as Interim Zone Leader Zonic spoke to his subordinates "Zector, Zespio as of now you are promoted to Commanders, Though I think you could do with a few months more polish we are short-handed right now and the Zones are all in chaos. Any objections?"  
"No, Sir!" "No, Sir!" Zonic nodded as far as the bandage allowed suppressing a wince as it tugged at the stitches beneath them "Good now onto the immediate situation, though our zone managed to survive the Genesis Wave Incident unlike many others, it was still critically damaged as I'm sure has been noticed? No Zone is now permanently at eighty-nine-degree angle, the announcement will go out in a few hours and every zone cop will be called in to have their interzone travel gear re-calibrated."  
The redheaded chipmunk, a rookie by the look of it interrupted, "Pardon the Interruption sir but is it true that most of the Zones are gone?"  
Zonic gave the new recruit a sharp glare for speaking out of line before sighing, "Unfortunately yes. Prime Zone... has been shifted into Read Only Mode though there is a patched timeline in the works, the zone itself is no longer accessible" This the newly promoted commanders and rookie give a sharp exhale in shock.  
"Thankfully Eggman Nega was erased in the Wave and his dimensional replacement has no clue we exist, travel to that zone is henceforth banned, we are not restarting that mess again"  
Zonic eyed the group darkly make his threat crystal clear.  
"Now I ask you to try to understand the severity of the following information. As of now we only have unrestricted access to six zones The Chaos Fusion Zone, Underground Zone, Solar Zone, Archipelago Zone, Light Mobius Zone which in light of the crisis we have a pact of mutual aid with and a place that we are provisionally calling Mage Zone which seems to have manifested chaos energy randomly a few years ago." Zonic paused leaning forward. "Contact permissions for all Zones are rescinded except for Light Mobius Zone which we have contact with and Mage Zone which will establish first contact with us in approximately one hour"  
"Sir! That is against protocol surely we don't need their help!" Zally protested though fell silent with a harsh glare from Zonic.  
Speaking sharply to the room as he glared the cringing rookie into submission Zonic continued, "I was informed of this first contact by myself from four hours into the future thanks to receiving this item as a gesture of good faith" Zonic tapped the golden hourglass necklace sitting innocuously on his desk. "Incidentally we do need assistance, Our Zone is in ruins and our people are injured and in some cases in the more isolated areas starving. If we expect to recover and regain our positions as keepers of multiversal stability we must seize all advantages we can." Zonic sighed tiredly, "We are already receiving aid from Light Mobius who frankly only survived the Genesis Wave themselves by the grace of the denizens pulling off a miracle to protect that zone and saving several adjacent ones by accident. The Chaos Fusion Zone still exists as does the Archipelago Zone though the reading on that dimension are a bit.. strange" Zonic paused, Archipelago Zone was just weird, it was hard to tell what was normal there.  
"Mage Zone is the anomaly" Zonic pulled out a file and tapped it pointedly, "I'm hesitant to say it reminds me of Old Earth before the Xorda with Magic being so much more prevalent."  
Zonic resisted the urge to rub his ears in annoyance at only having access to that many zones when they once had uncountable trillions, still, the sensors would be fixed in time, and then they could look for any other surviving zones to access the damage.  
"Now onto your duties, Commander Zector, I want you to monitor Solar Zone from the Computer Room with the new recruits to show them the ropes" Commander Zector straightened sharply at the order. "Commander Zespio, you will travel to Archipelago Zone and investigate the strange readings, I must stress this is a stealth mission, Do Not Be Seen and Do Not Interfere. You have authorization for a class five loadout on this mission. Zally and Zighty, Now that the zone fluctuations have stabilized you will monitor The Chaos Fusion Zone and observe people of interest, 'The Runner' has already unwittingly caused enough problems, any more and we'll have to come down on him hard, you are authorized to activate warning protocols if necessary." Zally and Zighty straightened and nodded affirmatively. Zonic straightened "Return here once you have returned from mech suit calibrations for some new special equipment. Any questions?" There were none "Then Dismissed!"  
Once the No Zone soldiers had vanished out the door Zonic forced himself to his feet and made his way to the Portal Room flanked by several bodyguards who he let guard the door with orders to look professional, for as his future self had informed him, this would not be an easy negotiation, though at least this way he would have the advantage.  
The gold ring floated peaceably in the air, then, then right on schedule with a noiseless ripple, a human man stepped through coming face to face with the Zone Cop's Leader. Zonic spoke first. "Hello, Head Unspeakable Nicolas Flamel, I believe we have a business matter to discus?"  
The Head Unspeakable forcibly unmasked by the inter-zone transportation ring could only smile weakly hiding his dismay as he eyed the golden hourglass around the anthropomorphic blue hedgehog's neck, clearly, this being knew his way around such temporal energies and how to abuse loopholes if his possession of it was any indicator. This would not be a fun negotiation nor, did he expect, it would be in his advantage.

Unplottable Ocean, Planet Earth, Mage Zone  
The brisk salty sea air washed over General Vance making her sigh from her place in the command deck of the ship, the crowning jewel of the Magical's sea fleet 'The Magicks' an odd fusion of American destroyer but with sails, bringing up the rear were the goblins in their geode seacraft which for all intents and purposes were floating rectangular bricks half the size of a football field and matted black. Their seaworthiness determined by the thousands of runes carved on the inside of the floating rocks, More than one W.A.N.D Official had to be given a calming draft upon learning that the goblins possessed such crafts.  
"It's a strange new world isn't it, General Vance?" Queen Amelia Bones was not one such person and had immediately endeavored to introduce the top human artificers and magical engineers to the goblins and proposed a few joint ventures.  
"Queen Amelia are you sure this is a good idea" General Vance asked scanning the horizon with worry for the approaching objective. "If we succeed then I will be sure, The entire magical world is watching us, General there is no room for uncertainty, remember our mission?" General Vance took a steadying breath and nodded "Prove we are right to the world, That our way is the right way, that our way is that of Right making Might and not the reverse"  
Queen Amelia nodded "We rule because we are right and that power and the belief of all those with us is our might"  
General Vance nodded "We possess the first modern wizarding army of any magical nation on Earth, a magical army encompassing land, sea and air"  
Above the ship, in formation flew hundreds of airborne magicals kept aloft by any variety of methods from brooms and flying carpets to threstrals and hippogriffs.  
"Unrestricted by any such antiquated notions of blood status, species and other enforced inequalities that other countries so love to practice" Queen Amelia's expression bore naught but scorn for the concept.  
"We are a nation undivided, we are a nation united and it is high time we advance in lockstep and prove it."  
The communication array embedded in General Vance's badge came to life with a nary a crackle the voice of the captain of the ship ringing clear "General Vance! The Isle of Drear is within sight! Your orders General?"  
General Vance tapped the badge "Proceed with the plan, I want this operation carried out flawlessly!"  
"It's about time we bring all our errant territories back into the fold." Queen Amelia spoke calmly at the railing as the misty isle slowly came into sight.

Scotland, Hogwarts, Ravenclaw Tower Common Room Entrance  
The 3ft 6in tall half-goblin worried his lip with his teeth as his wand finished the last of the charms on the raven door knocker "That should do it" spoke Professor Flitwick as he turned to Headmistress McGonagall "The enchantment has been fixed, That should be the last of them"  
"And the other suggestions?" The Scotswoman prodded.  
"The dormitories are now fully gender-segregated in all houses, no more girls sneaking into the boy's dormitories" Flitwick explained then noted the conflicted expression on her face "Minerva? What is wrong"  
The McGonagall sighed unguardedly "Do you think I am changing Hogwarts too much?"  
Immediately Flitwich knew what she was talking about "Is this about those howlers? Minerva I though you knew better than to pay them any mind?"  
McGonagall sighed as they walked together to the staff room "Under my guidance, I've torn down much of what Hogwarts used to be. The way classes are run, the point system and now we can no longer sort students! A tradition may I add we have had in place for thousands of years!"  
The half-goblin growled and stamped loudly on the stone floor "And we are better for it, No. Do not interrupt me, Minerva! This needs to be said!"  
Flitwick took a deep breath seeing he had her attention "The fault for that lies with prior generations allowing no changes at all, These changes should have been initiated centuries ago! The only reason you are getting so much criticism is that you are fixing a system they do not believe is broken and fixing everything at once bringing this institution to what it should have become instead of what it 'was supposed to be'  
Flitwick snorted disgustedly "Times change Minerva! What 'was supposed to be' was the standard hundreds of years ago! You are turning this school into what it is meant to be! The premier magical educational institute in the world, regardless of the year and for those who understand this fact, ignoring the hidebound traditionalists, who are the source of almost all the criticism you have received I note, you have our respect."  
"I think I needed to hear that" McGonagall admitted after a moment of silence after Flitwick's impassioned speech.  
Flitwick nodded as if it was obvious then grinned "As long as this moment of doubt doesn't stem from the fact we just magically enforced chastity on every student within Hogwarts walls my own respect for you will remain unwavering.  
A moment of silence before Minerva McGonagall and Filius Flitwick abandoned solemnity and sadness to start giggling at the ridiculousness of that statement.  
"Well if they didnae hate us afore they will noow" spoke Minerva breezily wiping away a tear of laughter.  
"You should probably leave that part out of your welcome back speech" noted Flitwick dryly still grinning.  
"I intend ta"  
"Feeling better?"  
McGonagall nodded stopping suddenly thoughtful as though she's had an idea something in her eyes going hard "Much, and now I have some unfinished business I simply must deal with, I've put it off fer far long enough"  
Flitwick watched the scotwoman walk away with new determination in her stride felt just a drop of pity for whatever or whoever said unfinished business was before deciding to go get a snack and put it out of his mind.

Hogsmeade Village, Bluewind House  
There was a certain thrill of fear that comes to every student when their scariest teacher reveals foreknowledge that indicates they know exactly where that student lives, Sonic was no exception to this rule. Upon answering the door to find a rain bedraggled Headmistress Minerva McGonagall on his doorstep asking to speak with him, Sonic started to inwardly panic while outwardly welcoming her in the house for tea.  
Miles was at Longbottom Hall today with Neville as the two collaborated on one of their projects, Leaving Sonic who had just returned from a short jog back from London to face the intimidating school teacher without any backup.  
Minerva broke the silence first "Is there perhaps a reason that one of my best students has no listed legal guardian, is performing jobs that should be handled by adults and, despite being underage, is living by himself supporting a younger similarly unlisted sibling?" Sonic could not prevent the outward flinch that time, 'well' he noted grimly to himself and no little amount of sarcasm 'at least she's upfront about it, just imagine this conversation becoming awkward!'  
His best response to this confrontation was honesty along with cold hard facts, the bitterness was entirely involuntary "My other choice wasn't much better" Sonic spoke lightly as if talking about the weather "My uncle threatened to whip me with his belt almost daily as a child as it is, finding out I received a letter from an actual 'school of freakishness' might have motivated Dursley to actually go through with his threats instead of just blowing hot air and 'forgetting' to feed me"  
For a moment Minerva seemed struck dumb staring at Sonic with unusual intensity.  
"What are you staring at? - Hey! Some personal space please!" Sonic protested as McGonagall leaned forward brushed a finger over his forehead. Sonic shivered at the contact as she traced the nearly invisible scar, he almost missed her whisper of a familiar name "Harry Potter" Sonic backed away around the kitchen island and spoke stiffly, "I don't know how you know that name but my name is Maurice Bluewind I also answer to my nickname Sonic, you know him? The celebrated Hero who helped save your school, twice?" Sonic briefly wondered if he'd gone too far with the sass but instead of angry McGonagall merely shuddered looking sad "Oh how we've failed you, child" Sonic yelped as McGonagall went around the kitchen island and hugged him, freezing at her next statement.  
"I should have never have let that senile old bastard leave you with Petunia" Aaand the intimidating Scotswoman was crying all over him, Now, Sonic wondered dryly as his headmistress proceeded to soak him with tears, how to get her to stop crying and possibly keep his living situation a secret.  
Bringing out more tea and the stash of home-baked cookies he'd been saving for a rainy day seemed to work for the first part and Sonic carefully didn't comment as McGonagall wiped her eyes a few times to reclaim her composure and continued the conversation "There is still the matter of your younger 'brother' though" McGonagall side-eyed the bluenet, 'Well she did agree to keep my secret, sort of..' Sonic pondered before deciding to put it gently.  
"I found him locked in a cell in a dungeon in a ruin in Wiltshire, remember the one with the Lethifold in the news? The other cells were full of rotting dead bodies" McGonagall choked on her biscuit, Sonic is not good at putting it gently.  
McGonagall washed down the crumbs as she thought back to the incident as it had been reported in the paper, more than one member of the old crowd approaching her after in a celebratory mood with some very good booze. Her mind drifted to the cherubic little Miles, the first squib animagus in recorded history "Miles, He's the Malfoy Heir?"  
Sonic shrugged unsure "Possibly? I had to scratch out runes on his cell door to free him, He grew attached to me and after the manor, I figured he'd be safer with me"  
McGonagall scowled grimly "He's not as old as he should be… Knowing that family, no doubt some dark magic foulness gone awry"  
Sonic didn't know what to say to that piece of black commentary and settled for worrying about his immediate future "So what are you going to do?"  
McGonagall sighed matching his gaze tiredly "...Get good scores in your exam, If you or Miles have any problems, come tae me"  
"You're not going to turn me in?" some of the incredulity must have seeped into his tone as McGonagall smiled serenely and Sonic mentally hit himself for bringing it up.  
McGonagall's expression was cynical, "When I grew up it was not uncommon for young children to work alongside their parents to support the household. Given you have managed to obtain a high-paying job, bought a house and responsibly managed to enroll both yourself and your adopted sibling in school, of your own violation I can hardly be the one to force you both into a worse situation."  
Sonic added some reassurance "I recently gained full access to my inheritance" he kept silent on the fact that the bulk of it was still being dug out of the bowels of Gringotts.  
McGonagall nodded grudgingly, "That would help I suppose, but if you encounter any trouble, owl me and I'll see what can be done"

Wizarding Examinations Authority Exam Rooms, Wizarding Army of National Defense Headquarters, London  
Sonic yawned and stretched, as he waited patiently for Susan to be let loose from the examination room. He, Bunnie and Neville had already finished all their first year exams, with the latter two going to the ravine to set up the End of Exams Party that promised to become an annual thing, Susan on the other hand in addition to all first-year theory and spellcasting was being tested on advanced theory for multiple classes with the older students. The exams hadn't been as hard as he was expecting Sonic mused, changing a mouse into a snuffbox for one had been exceptionally easy. Idly Sonic thought he'd done a fairly good job in making his pineapple dance for the charms exam though he'd made it waltz instead of tap dance, his mind too focused on the dancing at the gala last month with Susan after the speeches had concluded, the number of times his feet had been stepped on only outnumbered by the number of suck-ups who had approached Susan for whatever reason.  
At last, Susan exited the exam hall absently flexing her palms, evidently to massage away any residual soreness from writing all day, her tired expression disappeared as she spotted Sonic waiting for her.

June 15th, 1992, Hogwarts, Staffroom, ground-floor  
Minerva McGonagall sighed as she stared at the mess on the table, a battered length of age-worn leather formerly a hat, The Sorting Hat to be precise. Flattened by rubble when one of the massive Kudzu vines had crashed through the open window in the headmistress's office, the hat no longer functioned although Filius's own tinkering in attempting to repair the ancient artifact had revealed some surprising secrets. The two surprises in question were now displayed in the Trophy Room under heavy wards, the ruby encrusted legendary Sword of Godric Gryffindor and the intimidating topaz and black opal studded double-headed war-hammer of Helga Hufflepuff.  
McGonagall chuckled briefly at the thought of the intimidating hammer noting that Sprout was going to be near unbearable for the next however many years as her house founder apparently was, as the younger generation would say 'hella fly'.  
Still, McGonagall sighed as she boxed up the remains of the Sorting Hat, She'd be sending it off to a specialist to repair it. The magic was completely gone from it and unrecoverable but the Sorting Hat once repaired could make a nice reminder and would sit in the trophy room for the rest of its existence.

June 31st, 1992, The Forbidden Forest, The Ravine  
Sonic just laughed as the yellow two-tailed fox that was Miles chased after the frisbee, jumped then tripped over his own tails before turning back into Miles the frisbee held high in triumph, pointedly ignoring the grass stain right down his back.  
Ginny was cooing over the strange creature one of her brothers had given her, Arnold the Chao cheeped as it splashed around in the shallows of the river before chasing after Miles, who was trotting along as a two-tailed fox carrying the frisbee, in all its soaking wet glory causing the fox to retreat with a panicked yip causing those watching to laugh.  
Further away Susan and Madam Hopkirk were showing Queen Amelia around the ravine for the first time.  
Rob and Nev were over by a section of ground that had been cleared and canopied away from the elements with swooping interwoven white waterproof tarps and made to serve as an outdoor grill and general cooking area though it did share its role with a few crates of piping and construction material that Neville and Miles got creative with.  
When the sun finally set and the stars came out everyone marveled at the lights, jars of glowing moss in self-contained glass biomes hung around the ravine providing a gentle light depending on what color the glass was.  
Sonic's log cabin was near complete and he was already going over the things he'd learned to streamline the process for the others to make their own cabins. Sonic's own had turned out much bigger than he'd intended so it had become a meeting hall for the others with its rough but warm wooden interior to its transfigured roofing made of one single connected piece of fired umber colored clay that looked like rough tree bark when wet.  
Amelia was more than a little impressed at the small settlement taking form. "Have you thought of portkeys or installing floo? This could even become a proper wizarding settlement in time" Amelia had inquired of the group, she had not expected the unified adamant refusal.  
None of them wanted to share their hidden headquarters with the public at least not yet, Nev liked being in charge of a greenhouse all of his own design, Susan liked getting away from being stared at constantly and enjoyed the company of her friends, Sonic liked having a place all his own away from the crowds with the freedom to come and go as he pleased as well as having a safe place for Miles while Miles just liked to be allowed to experiment in peace without any adult supervision, Bunnie liked the calm atmosphere and the quiet after spending most of her childhood on the road with her exuberant and excessively paranoid godfather.  
All of them knew that if they opened their place to the public it would no longer be theirs alone and they would no longer have complete control of how they wished the place to develop. To put it bluntly, none of them wanted the common flamboyant wizard's sense of décor anywhere within a thousand miles of the natural beauty of the ravine, a sentiment that had the adults sharing amused glances.  
Later after Hopkirk and Amelia had left heads turned as the clear ringing sound of a guitar being played echoed around the clearing a hard rock melody filtering through the leaves and bouncing off the walls of the ravine pleasantly. Sonic had brought out his guitar and between tuning, had started idly strumming out a few half-remembered guitar solos losing himself to the music. Therefore he blinked surprised at the audience he had gathered then laughed at their applause unaware he had gathered such interest.  
"You do realize it's not November or a rainy right?" Bunnie grinned at the smirking Sonic who shrugged "I just like the guitar solo"  
"Where did you learn to play like that?" asked Susan eyes suspiciously bright Sonic shrugged "I figured out how to play by ear it's really not that hard, you should see me on piano, I once played the Minute Waltz in seven seconds!"  
"Sounds like a story" Susan teased sitting next to him.  
Sonic shrugged a light blush dusting his cheeks wondering how to avoid having to explain the embarrassing fact that he'd somehow set the piano on fire in the process without any magic even.  
"Hey look!" Sonic let out an inaudible breath of relief as Miles diverted everyone's attention pointing up at something in the sky.  
Above them, the starry night seemed to dance as stars fell and streaked across the sky leaving the group in awe.  
"Mah stars!" exclaimed Bunnie with a delighted laugh at the light show playing out above them.  
"Shooting stars!" Neville exclaimed equally delighted.  
Miles pointed at the brightest one, one that was getting bigger by the second as it descended "That's a really big one!"  
"It's heading right for us!" yelped Sonic as the ravine blazed with light too fast for anyone to escape the impact.  
Blinking a different type of stars out of his eyes Sonic hissed as he rubbed his eyes to restore his vision Miles was curled up as a fox with his tails covering his eyes, the others were similarly blinking and Susan was... walking towards the floating glowing star?  
"Susan! Get away from there!" Sonic yelled staggering over "It could be dangerous!"  
"I'm fine Sonic! I have a flame freezing charm up!" Susan called back.  
Up close the 'star' was a sphere the size of a basketball that despite its bright glow gave off no heat, it hovered above the ground at chest level with Susan who in a move that would get her lectured on common sense poked the sphere with her wand.  
The sphere unfolded like the petals of a flower in bloom with a hiss of displaced air revealing what looked like a flip wallet or possibly one of those mobiles that were all the rage amongst the mundanes but much more compact.  
Then the thing spoke, "Hello Princess Susan I am a Networked Intelligence Computer Operational Logistics Emulation but you can call me N.I.C.O.L.E".


End file.
